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•Q. 



THE SHAVING OF 
SHAGPAT 



THE SHAVING OF 
SHAGPAT 



INTERPRETED 

BY 

JAMES McKECHNIE 



HODDER AND STOUGHTON 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

MCMX 



ff^ 5^t^ 



5^ 



1^3 



NOTE. 

It is not as seeking to issue this book under 
the aegis of Meredith's approval that his letter 
appears here. Such approval as it contains re- 
fers not to the present work but to an essay 
published some years ago on the same subject. 
Meredith's letter is given because it reveals his 
opinions not on my \vork but on his own. It 
may fail to convince certain folks that "The 
Shaving of Shagpat" is an Allegory — but it can- 
not fail to convince them that Meredith at least 
intended it to be so. 



\ti ?ni 






to 



^ 



CONTENTS 

c-j PAGE 

^ FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM 
V MEREDITH 

INTRODUCTION . . - g 

THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

Preparation - - - - 25 

Hesitation - - - - 35 

Decision; .1 ... 49 

THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

Insight - - - - 67 

Enthusiasm . . . . jg 

Idealism . . _ . 89 

THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

Speculation - - - - log 
Illusion .... 123 

Vanity - - - - 141 

DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

Purgation - - - - 159 

Equipment - - - - i77 

Temptation . - - . 193 

THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

Plottings - - - - 211 

Battles - - - - 223 

Spoils - - - - 241 



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INTRODUCTION 



WHY make a riddle of truth, as if 
truth were not riddle enough in 
itself? When poser of this sort 
is put to the defender of allegory, let 
him kno\v himself in hearing of the 
triumphant neighings of horse-sense, 
and maintain respedtful silence. Before 
a tribunal amenable to finer pleadings 
it may avail him to claim for allegory 
that it is self-help translated into a lit- 
erary expedient — that between other 
books and it the difference is as be- 
tween giving a man a dinner of venison 
and showing him the deer-tracks in 
the fore^, inviting him to capture his 
dinner. For while allegory is provo- 
cative and regulative of ideas, it cannot 
be said to gift them. It is merely an 
empty mould, stimulating and guiding 
in us an outflow of thought to its up- 
filling. To read allegory is thus to read 
ojieself. It is a magnet to draw out 
9 

B 



INTRODUCTION 

and a mirror to refledt a man to him- 
self, so bringing him into possession 
of the hidden resources of his own 
thought. For this reason — provided 
always that the truth concealed be, on 
its own merits worth finding — must 
not that game of hide and seek with 
it, which allegory essentially is, be de- 
declared of all intellectual games the 
one w^hose rewards are noblest? 

Among English Allegories "The Pil- 
grim's Progress" and "The Shaving of 
Shagpat" form a class by themselves, 
and stand to each other in remarkable 
relationship. Never were two works 
more similar yet dissimilar in all res- 
pects. Almost the most popular and 
almost the least popular work in our 
language are alike great Allegories — 
but how different the quality of their 
greatness! Of Bunyan it must be said 
that never did great Allegorist play the 
game pf allegory with more merciful 
moderation. In his hands indeed it was 
little more than an expedient to enable 
him to describe man's hidden druggies, 
his religious experiences, in the form 
of a story — securing for it the move- 
ment, adventure and interest of genuine 

lO 



INTRODUCTION 

story. It marks the triumph of his art 
that he accomplished this object with- 
out requiring to put any but the most 
transparent veil over his truth, that he 
su^ained the illusion while practically 
using no illusion. It is impossible to 
analyse art such as his; its secret is the 
inscrutable secret of simplicity. As a 
writer Bunyan was supremely great; as 
an ^Uegorist he was fortunate in his 
genius, doubly fortunate in its limita- 
tions. It is his happy de^iny to delight 
all readers. Even those who consider 
the framework of his theology some- 
what cramped and rigid are con^rained 
to admit that his imagination moves in 
it with admirable freedom. "The Pil- 
grim's Progress" though based on theo- 
logy is independent of its changes. Its 
de^iny, under all changes, is to nestle 
close to the heart of humanity, because 
that it itself is so intensely human. 
Not then as hinting fault, but merely as 
stating fact, is it said that while to 
the extent to which he used allegory 
Bunyan proved himself a great Alle- 
goric, yet the extent was limited. That 
game at hide and seek with truth which 
allegory, at its most legitimate, is — 
II 



INTRODUCTION 

Bunyan played it in mo^ merciful 
moderation. 

It is difficult, on the other hand, to 
exonerate Meredith from the charge of 
having played the game fatally well. 
If guilty, it aggravates his fault that for 
quite half a century he looked on at 
men's bewilderment and misconcep- 
tions in regard to his work, and yet 
uttered no word of guidance; that on 
the contrary — since they could not 
read his riddle — he seemed not unwill- 
ing to have it believed, rather indeed 
quizzically encouraged the belief that 
no riddle was intended. 

This apparent indifference toward the 
fate of his great Allegory mu^ surely 
be traced to something quite other than 
indifference. Without pretending to 
know the facfts I am prepared to believe 
that on none of his works did Meredith, 
to begin with, build such high hopes 
as on "The Shaving of Shagpat," and 
that to the keenness with which he felt 
the shattering of those hopes is due the 
fadt that, though the bent of his genius 
lay in the direction, he never wrote an- 
other allegory. What his experience 
had convinced him of was not, we may 

12 



INTRODUCTION 

be sure, that he was incompetent to 
write allegory, but that the public was 
hopelessly incompetent to appreciate it. 
There is no indifference so ^ubborn as 
that which is rooted in despair, and 
Meredith's indifference toward the fate 
of his Allegory was probably of this 
nature. As to whether the greater 
grievance lay with him or the public 
it is difficult to decide. It is true that 
were the public ta^es and capabilities 
in the matter of allegory raised to 
the required standard "The Shaving of 
Shagpat" would be an altogether suc- 
cessful Allegory. It is further true that 
so far as it can be called a failure, 
it is so only by reason of its own over- 
loaded greatness, its own too brilliant 
success. But ought not Meredith to 
have better proportioned the gift to the 
receiver? Mo^ writers indeed are 
themselves so afflicted with mental 
limitations and indolences that they 
meet readers on an equal footing — 
need, if anything, to write up rather 
than down to them. But with Meredith, 
nimble^ and strongest of mental ath- 
letes, it was different. By his lack of 
consideration for the public he has suff- 
13 



INTRODUCTION 

ered not only in popularity but, as I 
think, in some of the elements of true 
greatness. He who will not defer to 
others' weakness is apt to trip over his 
own length, and — speaking now of 
his writings generally — evidence of 
such tripping is abundant. Genius is 
at its strongest when it turns its 
^rength in upon itself in wise self- 
suppression. Meredith lacked in that 
point of ^rength. His pages are over- 
loaded with gems of imagination, and 
though there be no question as to the 
value of the gems, their crowded mul- 
tiplicity comes in time to bewilder, 
even seriously displease. Simplicity, 
occasional dullness even, would be a 
relief from the disturbing glories of his 
^yle. He would be a greater writer if 
he were not quite so great. He would 
give us more if he gave us less. His 
genius is equal to most things save the 
task of self-suppression. 

Failure in relation to the public 
though Meredith's Allegory is — when 
men can take on them to deny that it 
is Allegory at all, I am put in the pain- 
ful dilemma of doubting whether it is 
their candour or their intelligence I 
14 



INTRODUCTION 

ought to discredit. Perhaps it is a litttle 
of both. Not to speak of thosa many 
loopholes in the work which afford un- 
mi^akeable peeps into an under-world 
of meaning — the book everywhere car- 
ries a challenge on its face, is indeed, 
in its very construdtion, a challenge. 
Fairyland, to be sure, is the land of the 
impossible, but even the impossible has 
traditional laws and limits. These 
Meredith set at nought in such a way 
as to show that his visit to that realm 
was ,not made for its own sake, and 
in the devout spirit of fictionist. Fairy- 
land was to him merely the way out 
to the world of the actual. All along 
he had his eye on the adlual — hence 
his otherwise unaccountable cantrips, 
the weight of too complicated and, as 
such, inartistic invention ruthlessly dis- 
loaded on that ethereal region. "The 
Shaving of Shagpat" viewed merely as«^ 
a ^ory has many and rare excellences, 
but to assert that it is complete in itself, 
stands justified by its own open art, 
seems to me a manife^ misjudgment. 
It is a bewilderment, a broken wonder 
of a story — too great yet not great 
enough to be complete in itself. The 

15 



INTRODUCTION 

wildness of its fiction makes us suspedl 
that it is meant for more than fiction; 
its grotesque lawlessness puts us in 
search of law. Its very con^ruction is 
thus a challenge. Am I wrong in as- 
suming that readers have quite gener- 
ally detected this challenge, and that 
their subsequent denial of it is by way 
of being a reasoned, I will not say a 
disingenuous, afterthought? The book 
seems to have a meaning, but, they 
argue, if it really had one they would 
be ,able to discover it. The fadl that 
they cannot discover it is therefore 
proof that it has no meaning. It is 
not so much that men are blind as that 
they argue themselves into blindness. 

In spite of the undeniable difficulties 
of his work, I claim for Meredith that 
he is an entirely honest allegorist — 
one indeed who cunningly conceals the 
truth, but never by illegitimate devices. 
The grotesque humour of the book is 
not the lea^ effective of such devices. 
Even those who, from acquaintance 
.with his works, know how serious 
Meredith can be in his mirth, have been 
taken in by the wild humour of Shag- 
pat. For it is no intelledtual je^er but 
i6 



INTRODUCTION 

the veritable god of laughter they have 
to do with here, and truly his godship 
has kept effective guard at the portals 
of allegory. But neither the humour 
nor the romance of the book can be 
counted other than legitimate blinds. 
For the romance, though possessing a 
value and beauty of its own, is yet 
entirely subservient to, made to take 
its direction from the allegory. Mere- 
dith's work is thus practically hidden 
in nothing but its own light. Its 
thoughts are its difficulty. Not of 
course that its thoughts are arcana, or 
that ma^ery of them implies know- 
ledge pf special philosophy, ism of 
any sort. An allegory whose kernel is 
an ism always permits of easy inter- 
pretation. One has but to know the 
ism to possess the key. But the key 
required for "The Shaving of Shagpat" 
is nothing less than the knowledge of 
life itself. Meredith was too wise to 
affedt secret wisdom; too great a thinker 
to care much for sy^ems of thought. 
Valuable truth, as he knew, is never 
secret truth — unless in the sense of 
being among those open secrets which 
every wind blows to us and every sight 
17 



INTRODUCTION 

reveals. It is thus the width, the free- 
dom of his thought which constitute 
its difficulty. Here let it be said that 
Bunyan and Meredith in their Alle- 
gories alike grip life closely, earne^ly; 
dealing not with little truths, but with 
the greatest, most universal truths 
known to them. To be sure even in 
their agreement they differ; but in re- 
gard to their main difference too much 
need not be made. That Christian's 
druggie is to save his soul while Shibli 
Bagarag's is to save the world ought 
not to be considered a point of hope- 
less antagonism. It is an antagonism 
which finds practical reconciliation in 
every worthy life. But while both are 
sides of truth, much depends on which 
side receives the emphasis — and here, 
I think, Meredith was truer to the 
spirit of Christianity than Bunyan. 
In fact, though it contains little open 
reference to Christianity, "The Shaving 
of Shagpat" is in few if any respects 
inferior to "The Pilgrim's Progress" as 
an exponent of the spirit of Christ. 
Few who have mastered Meredith's 
work will be likely to question the 
truth of this statement; to others, I 
i8 



INTRODUCTION 

am aware, it must appear absurd. 
Bunyan did well to represent his 
hero as a pilgrim; Meredith did better 
to represent his as a reformer. Pil- ' 
grimage is a term applicable to life in 
general; but as a noble life is a druggie 
against evil, it is more closely repre- 
sented in the character of a reformer 
— more closely indeed yet with equal 
catholicity. All right workers, whatever 
their sphere of work, are to be called 
reformers. It is the universal occupa- 
tion pf good men. But of course a 
reformer, in the concrete, is a speciali^. 
It is never the universal he reforms, 
but always and only the particular: and 
in directing his energies to that par- 
ticular he must be called a specialist. 
But even as specialist he works under 
universal rules. All reformers, though 
engaged in dissimilar work, must be 
similarly equipped with respect to their 
work. Hence the qualifications neces- 
sary for any reformer are the qualifi- 
cations necessary for all. In point of 
training also the special is the way out 
to the universal. Not by toying 
with many subjects but by wrestling 
with one, does man acquire a liberal 

19 



INTRODUCTION 

education. Not to be specialist is to be 
dilettante — passport to the realm of the 
vague rather than the universal. Shibli 
Bagarag, as shaver of Shagpat, was 
necessarily a speciali^ on Shagpatism; 
but nowhere is his specialism obtruded. 
The Allegory throughout is kept on the 
plain of universal truths. It is entirely 
catholic. 

Bunyan's was an intense imagination. 
All it touched it made alive. But it was 
not an imagination rich in invention. 
His symbolism shows this. It is, for 
the most part, a skin-tight symbolism; 
concealing the truth in no more ser- 
ious fashion than a well fitting glove 
conceals the hand. Meredith's symbol- 
ism, on the other hand, is such as 
only the world's greatest master of 
metaphors could produce. You never 
can exhaust it, seldom can be entirely 
sure of it. It is pla^ic, kaleidoscopic, 
catching and reflecting truth at ever 
changing angles. If the labour of in- 
terpreting Bunyan's symbols is small, 
the reward is frequently not great. 
What you get is merely the truth, much 
as you knew it before, given back 
to you. But Meredith's symbols gen- 

20 



INTRODUCTION 

erally reward your ma^ery of them 
with floods of fresh light. His imagina- 
tion was of the stuff myths are made 
of. In "The Shaving of Shagpat" there 
are allegories w^orthy for invention, 
artistic beauty, to rank with the be^ in 
Greek Mythology; while for spirituality, 
richness of meaning, they easily sur- 
pass the best. Yet Meredith's metaphors 
are not to be dealt with over strenuous- 
ly. Prosaic analysis is what few of 
them can bear. They are fairy coin 
intended for currency in the mart of 
imagination; creatures of the air let me 
rather call them — butterflies of thought 
— their utmo^ gift a dip and glint pi 
wing in the sunshine. To bear in 
mind that "The Shaving of Shagpat" 
is written with the fine elusiveness of 
poetry is to be in the right attitude 
for its ^udy. 

No gleaning can make bare the field 
of allegory. On the contrary, so magical 
is the field, that the ^ labours of one 
reaper but make possible a richer har- 
ve^ for those who follow. That is my 
justification for attempting this inter- 
pretation of "The Shaving of Shagpat." 
Far from being certain that I have 

21 



INTRODUCTION 

succeeded throughout in recovering 
Meredith's meaning, I may be prac- 
tically certain that I have occasionally 
failed. It is well nigh impossible for 
two minds to see truth at exactly the 
same angle. But to the extent that 
what I say is at once true to life and 
found to fit into the mould of the 
Allegory, I may claim it to be a correct 
interpretation. But not correct to the 
exclusion of other interpretations. 
Every man reads life in terms of his 
own experience and idiosyncrasies of 
thought; and if another can fittingly 
fill Meredith's moulds with reality other 
than mine, his interpretation w^ill be as 
legitimate as mine. But my belief in 
regard to such other interpretations is 
that while they may readily supplement 
and corredl, they will not be antagon- 
istic to, or even on their main lines 
radically different from my own. 



22 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 



PREPARATION. 



NOT as foreseeing but as aspiring 
to direct the happenings of time 
do honourable "readers of plan- 
ets" take on them to predict great 
things for those of happy birthdower. 
They predict that they may bring to 
pass — the right use of prediction. See 
the case of Shibli Bagarag. Let Shibli 
Bagarag be true to himself — ^and by 
his tackle — and he will come to great 
things — said the "readers of planets." 
Creative prophecy, setting the youth's 
heart on fire, making him ill at ease 
amid the delights of Shiraz! Not that 
he iWas satiated with these delights — 
his being still the fir^ keenness of 
youth; nor that he nourished ascetic 
scorn of them— a toothsome feast, then 
as ever, being of honourable considera- 
tion and no hog's paradise in his eyes. 
But to be sitting at ease in Shiraz 
"partaking of seasoned, sweet dishes, 
25 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

dipping his fingers in them" while that 
prophecy of the "readers of planets" 
was not fulfilled, nor in smallest way 
of fulfilment — no longer could he en- 
dure the self-scorn of it. It was up 
and away w^ith Shibli Bagarag, roaming 
the world, searching it for greatness. 
Ahj weary search, bitter disillusion- 
ment! After he has travelled far, been 
a tempter of destiny, a picker up of 
experience in many lands, he comes to 
us for introduction. At a glance we 
see things have not gone well with him. 
On his own confession they have gone 
deplorably ill. He is hungry, digressed, 
in need of all things. But greatness — 
ah, of your charity invite the poor 
youth to dinner, and taunt him not 
with wild-goose chase after greatness. 
Is not the experience of ambitious 
youth in general truthfully mirrored 
here.'* "Readers of planets," predicftors 
of great things — sanguine parents sel- 
dom fail to act as such to their children. 
But should they fail, children of the 
right sort are at no loss. Prede^ination 
is the creed of humanity, of no portion 
of it more devoutly so than the youth- 
ful. To believe in one's star is to believe 
26 



PREPARATION 

in oneself, and in more than oneself. 
Belief in self merely is too narrow a 
basis on which to build a noble life. 
It is necessary to feel that the universe 
is cognisant of you, has place and work 
set apart for you, that in the building 
of God's temple a certain ^one is for 
your hands and none other's to place. 
If you call this fatalism, call it also, 
since it lives only as wedded to adlion, 
by the nobler name of faith. It is the 
characteristic of faith that it finds itself 
only in action. Action turns the jelly- 
fish into the vertebrate, pious dream 
into ma^erful faith. Man never truly 
believes until he is at some sacrifice 
for belief's sake. Before Abraham could 
become "the Father of the Faithful'* 
he had to turn his back on home and 
kindred, grip God by the hand, fare 
forth with Him into the unknown. So 
with Shibli Bagarag — he who deserted 
the "seasoned, sweet dishes of Shiraz," 
faced hunger, misery, peril in search 
of great things. Before you can enter 
any right path in life you mu^ pay 
toll by an act of sacrifice. Always mu^ 
there be the giving up of something 
in order to seek a better something; 
27 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

always also the agony of hope deferred 
in regard to that better something. 

Shibli Bagarag's outward condition, 
at our meeting with him, is bad; but 
how as to his inward condition? A 
man, after all, carries his fortune in his 
heart: if Shibli Bagarag's heart is reso- 
lute, the digress of his condition may 
be merely a sign that he is on the right 
path, the "steep and thorny road" ap- 
pointed unto candidates for greatness. 
On his starting out from Shiraz there 
was round his soul, screening it from 
life's realities, a cosy cloak of illusion, 
.woven of self-love and inexperience. 
What, now that the world has had time 
to batter it with realities, is Shibli 
Bagarag doing with this cloak .^ Is he 
tearing it from or drawing it desper- 
ately round his soul — exposing it to, 
or patching, thickening it again ^ fur- 
ther batterings of reality? Why as to 
that — and with Meredith it is the test 
question of life — you will judge the 
youth unfavourably if you take serious 
account of his mouthings, impeach- 
ments of the universe in the matter of 
greatness and dinner, both shamefully 
overdue. But in the bad old days when 
28 



PREPARATION 

flogging was the law of the Navy, 
sailors under the lash had licence of 
speech, could mouth mutiny and no 
notice taken. So of your charity deal 
with Shibli Bagarag, for the words of 
the desperate are not to be criticised. 
And note, for it is here that you see 
the real man, that though the youth 
laments the loss of the "flesh pots" he 
makes no motion to return to them, 
and truly had he been mindful he might 
have had opportunity to return. The 
" seasoned, sweet dishes of Shiraz " 
haunt his imagination, but his will, the 
citadel of self, remains unmoved. Back 
to Shiraz he will not go. Say it was 
only stubbornness, but know that in 
stubbornness — that last refuge of batt- 
ered egoism — a man's guardian angel 
may sometimes shelter. Stubbornness 
is the will at bay, deserted or seemingly 
deserted, even by reason, its lawful ally. 
But reason often visits man incognito: 
a stubborn man may well be one in 
receipt of isuch visit. In Shibli Bag- 
arag's case stubbornness was wisdom. 
Is it not time the youth were finding, 
settling down to work? Consider his 
ripeness, verging on over-ripeness for 
29 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

work. He has tutored himself into 
much manhood, has roamed the world, 
endured— complainingly indeed yet also 
unflinchingly — hunger, hardship, the 
wor^ of fortunes. That golden dream 
which his ambition was at first setting 
out from Shiraz— life's disillusionments 
have not dispelled it, merely hardened 
it into set resolution. The youth is 
driven in upon himself to the invigor- 
ating, enriching of his manhood. This 
driving of self in upon self is among 
the chief gains of life's buffetings. To 
mo^ candidates for greatness there 
comes a time — it is their supreme test- 
ing time — when their glad, expansive 
faith in their star seems to condense, 
shrivel up, become nothing more than 
a minute, diamond-pointed faith in 
themselves. They carry then the 

burden of their destinies in the form 
of a bare resolution. The stars in their 
courses fight against them, and they, 
in divine rebelliousness, fight against 
the stars in their courses. This is in- 
deed the supreme tonic of the human 
spirit — this isolation which reveals to 
it the awful strength of its own spirit- 
hood. But to spirit as little as to body 
30 



PREPARATION 

are tonics substitute for food. Shibli 
Bagarag for the present has had enough 
of tonics; if kept much longer on them 
the medicinal bitterness will for him 
turn poisonous. His spirit will be de- 
voured by its own energies; as an 
unused sword it will "eat into itself 
for lack of something else to hew and 
hack," yea his life being thus a mere 
fever will pass altogether out, con- 
sumed by its own fires. No further 
progress on right lines can Shibli Bag- 
arag make until he finds work. Faults 
of character in plenty he ^ill has, but 
are they such as in his present position 
he can afford to part with? His boast- 
ings, for instance, hateful though they 
would be in a successful man, are they 
not permissible, almost admirable, in 
virile failure such as he 7 Confessedly 
he is an inchoate man, his virtues but 
crabbed virtues, half-kin to vices, but 
what will you have of a failure ? 'Tis 
the sunshine that sweetens: let Shibli 
Bagarag get into the sunshine. Every- 
thing he has learned in the school of 
failure let him, for his soul's health, 
not unlearn but relearn in the school 
of success. Then, not till then, may 
31 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

the man be "clothed in humility." 
The Unseen Powers have not been 
disregardful of Shibli Bagarag, nor have 
they kept him needlessly waiting. His 
preliminary drill, every hour of it, has 
been necessary to put him in condition 
to look at, consent to parley with such 
messenger as they intend to send. Now 
that he is in condition Noorna bin 
Noorka appears, offering him his com- 
mission; and 'tis the commission to 
shave Shagpat. 

So broad is Shagpat's back he can 
bear almo^ any evil meaning that can 
be put on him. Every man may there- 
fore in regard to him make "private 
interpretation." Any established evil, 
any baneful super^ition, any tyranny 
of lies is Shagpat. To remove an abuse 
whether in Church, State or village 
community is to shave Shagpat. All 
that is demanded is that it be an ob- 
jedtive evil, something that hurts the 
world. Not that the Allegory does 
not take recognition — it takes very 
ample recognition — of the exigence of, 
the necessity for shaving inward Shag- 
pats, those Shagpats that abide in and 
blight the soul of man. None the less 
32 



PREPARATION 

it will have no direc5l tinkering with 
the soul, for of such tinkering spiritual 
hypochondria, w^orse evils come. To 
secure the blessings of spiritual training 
without the evils of spiritual tinkering, 
devotion to the shaving of some Shag- 
pat is necessary. Without such devo- 
tion, with its outpouring of healthy 
adtivity, man, if he awakens into spirit- 
uality at all, can only awaken into 
morbid spirituality. He becomes a 
peevish student of symptoms, a feeler 
of the pulse of his soul; so making 
hypochondriac havoc of his conscience. 
For the right development of his man- 
hood it is necessary therefore that he 
devote himself in loving hatred to the 
shaving of some one or other of the 
world's Shagpats. The Allegory is 
framed in full recognition of this truth. 
Shibli Bagarag undergoes a strenuous 
spiritual training, but the direct object 
of his training is not to save himself, 
but to make himself a Sword for the 
saving of men. 

As for the Shagpat which Shibli Bag- 
arag is commissioned to shave — if it is 
for our mental convenience to interpret 
him with some measure of definiteness, 
33 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

— we may say that he represents a false 
faith, a faith that dominates, and dom- 
inates only to blight, the minds and 
hearts of men. That would imply that 
Shagpat is an in^itution. The law of 
life is extemalisation. Everything is 
irresistibly driven to create for itself a 
body: until it has a body it is not 
strictly among the things that are at 
all. Shagpat then is an in^itution, a 
false faith embodied in an institution. 
The greatness, wide extent of his power, 
is a point to be noticed. "There be 
governments and ^ates, and conditions 
of men remote, that hang on him, 
Shagpat." Clearly he stands high in 
the hierarchy of falsehood, is indeed 
the reigning falsehood of the day; men 
for the mo^ part not yet knowing him 
to be false. Rather do they "crowd 
and crush and hunger to adore him" 
being "held in enchantment by him,, 
and made foolish by one hair that's in 
his head." It is this Shagpat, mighty, 
enthroned lie — believed in, upheld by 
peoples and empires — that Shibli Baga- 
rag is commissioned to shave. Truly the 
youth's opportunity has come at last. 
Will he have courage to embrace it? 
34 



HESITATION. 



IDEAS prove themselves living by 
changing, passing into something 
else, "dying to live." Such an idea 
is Noorna bin Noorka — creature hence 
of transformations, surprises. In the 
^ory she is represented as conveying to 
Shibli Bagarag the idea of shaving 
Shagpat, in reality she is herself that 
idea personified. It is not however in 
the ab^ract, or in relation to men in 
general, but in relation to Shibli Bag- 
arag that she is so. She is the idea 
as it strikes, appeals to him, strictly 
thus his idea of shaving Shagpat. As 
engaging, monopolising his thoughts 
and activities she of necessity is con- 
tinually taking on new aspects, breaking 
out into fresh inspirations, gathering 
to herself ever richer and more varied 
meanings. Hence her amazing trans- 
formations, necromancies, cantrips. No 
cantrips would she exhibit were she a 
35 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

still-born idea enthroned — the fate of 
such — as mumniy-idol on the "god- 
shelf" of the mind; her consistency 
then would be of the kind to evoke the 
enthusiasm of fools. But such as she 
is, Noorna is the heart of the Allegory 
— the finest and subtlest of allegorical 
characters. 

Were she an academic idea Shibli 
Bagarag might be writing essays, songs 
even, in praise of her beauty. But as 
a pradlical, imperative idea he finds her 
repulsive. Many kinds of miracles may 
happen, but miracles of ugliness never 
happen. Nevertheless Shibli Bagarag's 
repugnance demanding, for the inten- 
sity of it, such miracle as symbolism, 
Noorna is depicted as impossibly ugly. 
Even so he cannot lightly reject her. 
Repellent though she is to flesh and 
blood, she yet "in^igateth keenly," 
stirs up, makes such mighty challenge 
to his manhood that he cannot lightly 
reject her. Know Noorna therefore for 
what she is, "Stem Daughter of the 
Voice of God," member of the Royal 
Family of the Duties, ugliest marriage- 
able member of the Family ! 'Tis a 
great point in her favour, this ugliness. 
36 



HESITATION 

Life brings many pleasant duties, their 
pleasantness making them none the less 
duties, but through their discharge can 
no man come to greatness. The duties 
■which bring us our opportunity, through 
■which we discipline our souls, ■wre^le 
into strength, glory — all of them are 
stern, forbidding of feature. 'Tis then 
a great point in Noorna's favour, her 
divine ugliness. Here, no^w that she is 
of marriageable years, is she, according 
to the custom of her Family, wooing 
among the sons of men, seeking some 
best and bravest youth to be her be- 
trothed. Splendid yet fearsome luck 
for Shibli Bagarag should he prove the 
youth. Him -will she lead through 
thwacks into glory ! 

Meantime 'tis to be taken as no bad 
sign that he coquettes but squeamishly 
with Noorna. Men defined to move 
the world are never of the light-o'-love 
order, themselves easily moved. They 
come profoundly rather than rapidly 
under new influence. The conservative 
instinct is strong in them, indeed true 
reformers are almost necessarily con- 
servative at heart. They are too reverent 
to be cheerfully iconoclastic. The thing 

37 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

that has forced its way into actuality 
is for them a thing not to be suppressed 
otherwise than with due hesitation. For 
they judge that if there is the law 
of the survival of the fittest, there 
is also the law of the coming into 
being of the fittest. The thing that 
has struggled out of nothingness into 
being has in their eyes at least a 
presumptive right to be. Possession 
is nine points of the law, and existence 
is nine points of its own justification — 
so to begin with, the men destined to 
reform the world often think. Certainly 
he who enters on the work of reform, 
especially religious reform, w^ith a light 
heart is little likely to prove a great 
reformer. Your very superior cosmo- 
politan person who can lay his finger 
inerrantly, in indeed a quite suave 
omniscience, on the shortcomings and 
superstitions of human creeds — to be 
sure it would not cost him a groan to 
shave Shagpat, and by that token he 
never can shave Shagpat. To qualify 
for becoming a liberator of the world 
a man must generally himself have 
been in bondage. It is in the process 
of emancipating himself that he eman- 
38 



HESITATION 

cipates the world. This accounts for 
the gradual nature of Luther's "Reform- 
ation," and for the heart-searchings it 
occasioned him. He began to be an 
iconoclast before he had ceased being 
a worshipper, to attack the Church be- 
fore he had ceased to number himself 
among her mo^ dutiful sons. So cher- 
ished was his heritage of reverence for 
Papal authority that in fighting against 
Rome, he felt himself, almost to the 
la^, fighting against himself. Luther 
also had much squeamish coquetting 
with his Nooma. 

Nevertheless, all allowance being 
made, Shibli Bagarag's fir^ concession 
to Noorna cannot be described as other 
than a too ungallant one. For what 
does he, as opening move in campaign, 
but make petition to the king — a 
monstrously hairy king — saying: "It 
is my prayer O King of the age 
that thou take me under thy protec- 
tion, and the shield of thy fair will, 
w^hile I perform good w^ork in this city 
by operating on the unshorn." Now 
que^ionable in point of expediency and 
morals though the policy must appear, 
Shibli Bagarag is not necessarily to be 

39 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

blamed for this attempt to enli^ hair 
as ally in battle against hairiness. In 
great enterprises great risks must be 
taken. To be fastidious is to be im- 
potent. To insist that because your 
cause is saintly your army must be 
composed of saints is to be quixotic. 
Had Shibli Bagarag sought this hairy 
king's patronage because he believed 
it would afford him the best, most 
effedlive means of shaving Shagpat, no 
blame might have been his. But that 
was not what he was thinking on. How 
to save his own skin was what he was 
thinking on. This shaving of Shagpat 
promises to be dreadful work. It means 
nothing less than upsetting the world, 
playing havoc with the reverences, the 
conservatisms, the superstitions of men; 
'tis certain there will be thwacks, sting- 
ing ones, going in such an enterprise. 
Shibli Bagarag cannot see his way to 
undertake it unless his personal safety 
is guaranteed. But the king's protec- 
tion would be a sufficient insurance 
policy again^ thwacks; give him that 
and, Allah helping him, he would pro- 
ceed to shave Shagpat. Yes, with a 
blunted razor, the price, as he must 
40 



HESITATION 

know, of such a king's protec5lion being 
the blunting of his razor. Truly Shibli 
Bagarag's first concession to Noorna is 
a too ungallant one. It is also, in re- 
lation to his own purposes, a foolish 
one. The man who aspires to climb 
the heights of ambition with an insur- 
ance policy against thw^acks in his 
pocket, is but one of fortune's fools, 
with whom good sport will be made. 
In a fight downright bravery is the be^ 
coat of arms; and downright cowardice 
has at least the negative merit of keep- 
ing man out of a fight. But cowardly 
courage, in its struggle to face danger 
safely, merely exposes itself to the more 
abundant danger. None the less since 
bravery is not the absence of, but the 
triumph over fear, much is to be said 
in favour of cowardly courage. Shibli 
Bagarag moves indeed in an ungallant 
fashion, but please remember he is the 
only man gallant enough to move in 
any fashion. The important thing, for 
the present, is that he is on the move 
at all. Heroes are not made in a day; 
much thwacking is required for the 
making of a hero; and Shibli Bagarag's 
luck in this matter is little likely to fail 

D 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

him. Fail him it would were the King 
to grant his reque^; a pitiful spectacle 
he would then present, hacking feebly 
at Shagpat with blunted razor. But 
praise the Disposer of Destinies, the 
King proves a fool, commands on ad- 
vice of cunning Vizier Feshnavat that 
the youth "be summoned to a sense 
of the loathsomeness of his craft by 
the agency of fifty stripes." And that 
w^as what came of Shibli Bagarag's in- 
genious attempt to take out, at the 
expense of Nooma, an insurance policy 
again^ thwacks. The like good fortune 
to all who prefer their skin to their 
Nooma. 

But Shibli Bagarag is not the youth 
to abandon his enterprise because he 
cannot be guaranteed against danger. 
If he does not as yet summon to him- 
self genuine courage, he at least draws 
upon the resources of his own san- 
guineness, assures himself that after 
all the danger is not great. It is not 
as if he were Shagpat's enemy, or had 
any intention of making war on gen- 
uine Shagpatism. The very reverse is 
the case. It is because he reverences 
Shagpat so, that he hates to see Shag- 
42 



HESITATION 

pat's disfiguring hairs. His purposes 
toward the man of hair are genuinely 
benevolent — as benevolent, say, as, to 
begin with, were those of Luther to- 
wards Rome — why then should he 
anticipate enmity? "Enter thou to him 
gaily, as to perform a friendly office, 
one meriting thanks and gratulation, 
saying 'I will preserve thee the Iden- 
tical.' " Thus counselled Noorna, her 
counsel, here as always, representing 
the w^orking of Shibli Bagarag's own 
thought. So mode^, so manifestly 
necessary is the measure of reform he 
contemplates that from no quarter, lea^ 
of all from Shagpat, need he anticipate 
serious opposition. Shagpat's hairiness 
must be a burden to himself. Like as 
not he is secretly longing for the ser- 
vices of barbercraft, a thing hitherto 
impossible to be got in this accursed 
city. When therefore a friendly, con- 
servative shave is offered hirn, will 
Shagpat not be glad? Shibli Bagarag 
will undertake not to remove one hair 
more than the stridt interests of health 
and decency demand; in any case, and 
above all, he will undertake that the 
Magical Hair, the Identical, will not be 
43 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

removed, interfered with in the least 
degree. Why then should Shagpat not 
be glad? For this preserving of the 
Identical means sub^antial immunity 
for Shagpat. It means that only cer- 
tain disfiguring hairs, flagrant abuses, 
adhering to him are to be attacked, 
that he in his essential self is to 
be lield sacred, let remain identic- 
ally as he is. Blame not Shibli Bag^- 
arag if in thus limiting the scope 
of his reform, he has been to some 
extent influenced by a desire to pro- 
pitiate Shagpat. Compromise is the law 
of human relationship. Government 
means either compromise or tyranny. 
No reformation accomplished by meth- 
ods of compromise can indeed be 
thorough in its nature, but Shibli Bag- 
arag does not, cannot in terms of his 
present convictions aim at thorough- 
ness. He is a conservative reformer. 
His ideals are in the pa^ rather than in 
the future. His aim is not to overturn 
but to restore, bring back what he 
conceives to be the good old days of 
Shagpatian simplicity. His scheme of 
reform is thus a meagre one, fitted 
indeed by its meagreness to provoke 
44 



HESITATION 

the scorn of dreamers. But omni- 
potence is easy in dreamland. A 
dreamer need not limit his dream to 
some modest remedying of earth's 
inju^ice; he may as well, when at 
it, dream of creating a new heaven and 
earth altogether. But for Shibli Baga- 
rag, a practical youth cautiously feeling 
his w^ay among things practical, this 
modest beginning must be declared 
excellent. It gives promise that he 
will prove a reformer with progressive 
ideals, one working to no ^ereotyped 
plan, but as accepting the guidance of, 
likely to guide the march of events. 
They who see the shortest distance 
before them often go furthest, for as 
they aim at no definite goal, no definite 
goal can satisfy them. The reform 
Shibli Bagarag proposes is confessedly 
quite inadequate, but let him set about 
it in earnest, taking no further counsel 
with the delicacy of his skin, and no 
fear but the educative and compulsive 
power of circum^ances w^ill drive him 
far enough. 

Note well, as immediate illustration 
of the educative and compulsive power 
of circum^ances, the interview between 
45 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

the barber and the man of hair. There 
is fine condensation of hi^ory here; 
whole chapters of it, shorn of acciden- 
tals yet retaining their full essence, are 
here. The reformer and the thing, the 
institution, to be reformed — often as 
they have stood thus front to front in 
friendly, unfriendly conference — when 
did ever conference end other than 
did this one? Shagpat declines to be 
shaved, takes mere mention of shave 
as unfriendly adl, deserving thwacks. 
Things needing to be reformed never 
accept, otherwise than on compulsion, 
the attention of reformers. Even when 
under compulsion they have many de- 
vices to wriggle out of such attentions; 
one of them, the clevere^, being to 
protest that they themselves are reform- 
ers. "There' s no denying that I need 
a shave, but I' 11 have no barbers about 
me. r m going to shave myself, can 
manage it quite well." In that find epi- 
tome of not a few hi^orical utterances. 
Not however an epitome of Shagpat's 
utterance. He being in his might and 
not yet knowing fear, delivers himself 
of this tit-bit of eloquence:— "A barber! 
a barber! Is 't so? Can it be.^ To me.^ 
46 



HESITATION 

A barber, O thou, thou reptile! filthy 
thing! A barber, O dog, a barber? ..." 
Rowlings, snortings of insensate rage, 
call you these? Yes, but none the 
less true representation of the heart 
thoughts of proud sons of privilege 
and abuse when reformers would in- 
terfere. With their lips they may speak 
otherwise — lip-masters of polite casu- 
istry they mostly are — but in their 
hearts it is ever:— "Confound their in- 
solence! How dare they, the unwashed 
dogs, presume to meddle with us." 
Verily for the felicity of it Shagpat's 
speech is a very tit-bit of speech, 
representative of world-wide Shagpat- 
ism. For the rest, and here also in 
significant irony, Shagpat is an impos- 
ing nonentity. To sit in preternaturally 
vacuous solemnity at his shop-front is 
the earthly task of Shagpat. What 
matters it if the head that wears the 
Magical hair be somewhat brainless? 
Has he not, as Lord of that Hair, 
millions of brains at his service ? Surely 
it is enough earthly task for Shagpat 
that he look preternaturally solemn, 
and, when in the mood for exercise, loll, 
twiddle his thumbs a little at shop-front. 
47 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

Shibli Bagarag's appeal to Shagpat 
ends in failure, and in the concomitant 
of failure, thwacks. When the enraged 
Shagpatians had be^owed on him a 
very "storm of thwacks" they took him 
"as he had been a stray bundle or a 
damaged bale, and hurled him from the 
city into the wilderness once more." 

The youth has tried to take out an 
insurance policy against thwacks, and 
failed. Then he has tried to convince 
himself that there will be no thwacks 
and discovered his error. What next.** 
For the present there is nothing next. 
He is benumbed, imprisoned within 
himself, has no outlooks, hopes or 
prospedts, looks "neither to the right, 
nor to the left nor above." His brain 
also has lost activity; the monotony of 
one thought is in it. "O old woman, 
O accursed old w^oman" is his dreary 
repetition. What help for the sorely 
bethwacked one.^ Why, the healings of 
time. 'Tis a youth of naturally lively 
wits and sparkling hopes. A little time 
and he will be looking with eyes keen 
as ever to the right and to the left and 
above. But will he ever again look at 
Shagpat ? 

48 



DECISION. 



MEREDITH is an enthusiast in 
the matter of thwacks, so much 
so that in praise of them he 
forgets to be allegorical, speaks openly, 
in language to be underwood of all. 
With infinite heartiness, with the reit- 
eration of one who revels in his task, he 
sings, shouts, preaches the hero-making 
virtues that lie in "celestial hail of 
thwacks." The mightiest of tonics is this 
tonic of thwacks, sure specific for hard- 
ening into manhood such as have in 
them the makings of men. Hence 't is 
compulsory that all candidates for great- 
ness submit to a Preliminary Examina- 
tion of Thwacks. That the majority fail, 
relapse whiningly to their native ob- 
scurity is all for good; the chosen few, 
the men of grit remain, and to them, 
for their further improvement, the 
world continues generous in thwacks. 
Thwacked into greatness,"made perfect 
49 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

through suffering" — it is, in a phrase, 
the history of consummate men. A 
barbarous method for the making of 
heroes, but what will you have? Must 
not the sculptor chisel the marble to 
fashion the man? Well for us that the 
Supreme Sculptor, the "Divinity that 
shapes our ends" is no sentimentali^. 
Whatever other effect Shibli Baga- 
rag's thwacks may have on him, 'tis 
certain they have already, and at a leap, 
greatly advanced his education. He 
sees deeper into the real nature of 
Shagpat, knows him now to be no un- 
willing martyr to hairiness, but one 
wearing hairiness unabashed, flaunting 
it in the light of day. Shagpat is cor- 
rupt at the core; ending not mending 
ought to be his doom. If Shibli Bag- 
arag tackles him again, he will bear that 
in mind. But now that he sees what 
a thwack-bringing monger this Shag- 
pat is, will he have courage to tackle 
him again? Ah, it is just with this 
question, for him become most import- 
ant of questions, that the youth is at 
wre^le in the wilderness. Present with 
him in the wilderness is Noorna, 
clothed ^n her ugliness; and since this 
50 



is his temptation another also, 

not mentioned in the Allegory, is with 
him. Noorna's words are:— "I propose 
to thee this, and 'tis an excellent pro- 
position, that I lead thee to great 
things, and make thee glorious, a sitter 
in high seats. Master of an Event — 
provided thou marry me in sweet mar- 
riage." The other, unnamed one's 
words are:— "You can 't propose to keep 
further company with that terror. Twice 
already, though you merely coquetted 
with her, has she brought the lash upon 
your back; judge then what a life she 
would lead you were you so mad as 
betroth her. Even could she bring you 
to greatness, which is que^ionable, 
what would greatness be, purchased at 
such a price .^ In mercy to yourself bid 
the thwack-bringing ugliness begone." 
Vex not Shibli Bagarag now with gabb- 
lings of advice; 'tis his supreme hour, 
his temptation in the wilderness, and 
in silence only can he gather to himself 
his ^rength. But pray, if you will, he 
may know that as matters stand be- 
tween him and Noma, his soul is 
already compromised. Noorna has 
wooed him too mightily tp accept 
51 



THK .OORNA 

rebuff tamely. ave him she must 

now, it will not be before she has thru^ 
her claw-fingers into his heart, rifling 
it of treasure. Pray that Shibli Bagarag 
may know that. 

Decisions which endure into the 
future have their roots in the past. Not 
that they come by preordainment, de- 
terminism — for surely they are sparks 
from those unquenchable fires of free- 
dom which bum in the spirit of man. 
But as for the wood and coals w^hich 
the sparks set on flame — these if the 
flame is to endure and prevail, mu^ be 
the gatherings of a lifetime. Well 
therefore for the strength of Shibli Bag- 
arag's decision that his whole past 
enters into it — those creative predic- 
tions of the "readers of planets," those 
^arvations, buffetings, hardships en- 
dured in many lands. He is a man 
prepared and disciplined of destiny 
unto this very hour; hence his decision 
when he comes by it, is given quietly, 
almost as mere matter of course. " 'Tis 
a pact between us, O old woman" quoth 
Shibli Bagarag to Nooma. The occa- 
sion is great enough to justify a vow, 
but Shibli Bagarag is great enough not 
52 



DECISION 

to ,make one. 'Tis the weak in will 
who are mighty in vows ; their delusion 
being that vows can fortify the will, 
turn its weakness into strength. When 
man wills effectively his yea is simply 
yea, his nay nay. Doubt not now in 
any case Shibli Bagarag's earnestness. 
He who clings to a cause for which he 
has suffered, clings to it in no dilettante 
spirit. He is identified with it, cemented 
to it by his own blood — for such pur- 
poses the best of cements. Shibli 
Bagarag is no dilettante, but a man 
terribly, dangerously in earned. Not 
as keeping his cowardly courage up by 
assuring himself that he will emerge 
unscathed from the fight; but as ex- 
pecting thwacks, prepared to endure 
them, does he this time don his armour. 
Real courage — hard, set, open-eyed — 
has come to him at last. Quietly 
therefore, yet passionately, and in true 
sacramental spirit, he devotes himself 
to the task of shaving Shagpat, takes 
it to him for better or worse, even 
as a man takes to himself a bride. 
This great, passionate, life-filling choice 
it is which is romantically yet ac- 
curately represented in the Allegory 
53 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

by Shibli Bagarag's betrothal to Noorna. 
When man makes a good resolution 
he is apt to judge it an achievement 
in itselfj earning him right to breathing 
time and self-gratulation. From that 
spring many dangers ; a chief one being 
that to secure this breathing time he 
antedates his good resolution, fixes it 
to come into operation to-morrow. But 
while to-morrow may take over the 
good work, it merely passes on the 
good resolutions of to-day to another 
to-morrow; so that man thus walks 
through life a day behind his own 
purposes, never catching up on them. 
To-morrow is the battle-cry of fools: 
let Shibli Bagarag, in this his hour of 
good resolution, see that it is not his 
battle-cry. Let him ha^en to confirm 
his resolution by rushing into action — 
to render his betrothal valid by bestow- 
ing on Noorna the "kiss of contradt." 
Any first effort to give practical effect 
to an unpleasant resolution is this "kiss 
of contract." Though in the wilderness, 
if that be taken literally, and out ,of 
touch with Shagpat, there are many 
ways by which he can begin to give 
practical effect to his resolution to 
54 



DECISION 

accomplish the shave. He can, for one 
thing, begin to set himself in order — 
to sacrifice, thrust from him such other 
ambitions and loves as are in his heart, 
and so make queenly room for Noorna. 
Whatever form the "kiss of contract" 
may have taken — and it is unnecessary 
to be precise in the matter — it was no 
relishable love-kiss, merely a ^ernly 
hearty duty-kiss. But such as it was,, 
behold the effect on Noorna. "It was 
as though she had been illuminated, as 
when a light is put into the hollow of 
a pumpkin." Every change in Noorna 
symbolises, as has been seen, a change 
in Shibli Bagarag himself. The change 
here symbolised is that which invar- 
iably comes from brave discharge of 
unpleasant duty. The unpleasantness 
in part disappears; rather not at once 
disappears, but — Meredith's symbolism 
being entirely accurate — is lit up with 
wondrous promise of disappearance. 
It is the crosses man refuses to carry 
which weigh mo^ heavily on him. He 
cannot long hate the duty he honestly 
tries to do; there is hidden divinity in 
duty to render that impossible. Shibli 
Bagarag is already in the way of 
55 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

making this glad discovery, and it 
conies to him as reward for running in 
advance of himself, nobly violating his 
feelings by kissing Noorna before he 
loves her. It is continually necessary 
that a man should in this sense be false 
to his feelings if he would be true to 
himself. In temporary divorce between 
action and feeling — action running 
nobly, aspiringly in advance — lies man's 
possibility of progress. Shibli Bagarag 
is indeed in the way of making glad 
discoveries. He has kissed the cross, 
and already there shines through it the 
lustre of the crown. He has taken upon 
himself an unpleasant duty, and already 
his is the promise of glory and of joy. 
The temptation in the wilderness is 
over, and the youth — now worthy to 
be called the reformer — comes forth 
victorious. Count it not against him 
that for the present there is little saint- 
' ship in his victory. If a man delays 
doing good till his motives are alto- 
gether good, his delay will be eternal. 
God does not despise the sacrifice of 
mixed motives, provided there is some 
element of good in the mixture. Shibli 
Bagarag is driven to shave Shagpat by 
56 



I 



DECISION 

revenge, ambition, any worldly motive 
you like; but he is also driven to it by 
the sense of duty. Let him keep that 
sense of duty, and all will come well. 
Duty is of the nature that it cannot 
abide to be one among a democracy 
of motives. It is the young cuckoo in 
the ne^ of the heart; no rest can it 
take till it expels the other nestlings. 
Shibli Bagarag is inspired by many 
motives now; let him keep the motive 
of duty, and in time he will be inspired 
by it alone. 

Meantime he comes forth from his 
temptation that rare^, terriblest of be- 
ings — an entirely resolute man, single- 
pointed of purpose, prepared to wait, to 
work, to suffer. The supreme secret of 
success is his, revealed to him in that 
lonely wrestle in the wilderness. It is 
in solitude, under the private tuition of 
God that life's best lessons are learned. 
Even the art of ma^erful publicity 
comes by the schoolings of solitude. 
Take account then of him who comes 
from the wilderness into the city; the 
power of God may be upon him to 
shake the city. It is as a friendless, 
resourceless youth Shibli Bagarag re- 
57 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

turns to the city of Shagpat; but what 
of that? He brings with him a magical 
magnet, found by him in the wilderness 
and named the magnet of earne^ness: 
doubt not that friends and resources 
will soon be his. Already one man, 
attradted by the magnet, is seeking 
friendship. It is Vizier Feshnavat. The 
crafty Vizier while outwardly the most 
zealous, barber-thwacking of Shagpat- 
ians, is Shagpat's secret enemy. His 
heart's desire is to have that miracle of 
hairiness abased, shaved even to the 
Identical. But to set bravely about the 
shave himself is beyond Feshnavat. At 
best he is merely a go-between, unfit 
to betroth Nooma but doing his best 
to seek out, urge some other man to 
betroth her. He has taken note of 
Shibli Bagarag as he stood before the 
King, has heard of his subsequent 
daring interview with Shagpat; and by 
these tokens knows that this is the man 
of men for his purpose. It is fated that 
the Vizier and the Barber shall meet, for 
"Chance is a poor knave; 

Its own sad slave; 

Two meet that were to meet: 

Life 's no cheat." 
58 



DECISION 

Despise not Feshnavat, the go-be- 
tween; rather imitate him. If you 
cannot yourself betroth Noorna, help 
her to betrothal; the duties you thus 
do by proxy are well pleasing unto 
God. Borrowing is the supreme royal 
art; all rulers of men are great bor- 
rowers. If you lack ^rength to accom- 
plish your desire, borrow another man's 
strength, even as Feshnavat borrowed 
the strength of Shibli Bagarag. The 
next best thing to possessing great 
qualities yourself is to be able to detec5l 
and utilise the great qualities of others. 

In other respects Feshnavat is not 
a man to be admired. He is a trader 
in treacheries, holds his viziership in 
virtue of treachery; cannot, it would 
seem, do even honest work otherwise 
than in a roguish manner. Ought 
Shibli Bagarag to accept alliance with 
such a man? Not to speak of the risk 
of it, would it be right ? Why, if Shibli 
Bagarag is going to shy at risks, dabble 
in casuistical scruples, Noorna has 
made a poor bargain in her betrothal. 
In loyalty to her he is bound to accept 
Feshnavat's alliance; not to be sure 
handing himself unreservedly over to 

59 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

be a cat's paw in the hands of that wily 
one, but retaining watchful independ- 
ence even in alliance. This is what 
happens. By written agreement, prop- 
erly atte^ed, Shibli Bagarag binds 
himself anew to the great task, gives 
Feshnavat pledges of loyalty. That is 
what is meant by the ceremony of 
betrothal, carried out with all due 
formalities, in the palace of the 
Vizier. 

The second kiss, given by Shibli 
Bagarag at this ceremony, need be 
noticed only for its effedt on Noorna. 
"New light seemed in her: and it was 
as if a isplendid jewel was struggling 
to cast its beams through the sides of 
a crystal vase smeared with dust, and 
old dirt, and the spinnings of the 
damp spider." What a little thing 
enables the gods to work miracles! 
Shibli Bagarag solemnly binds himself 
to be loyal to his ugly Noorna, and 
behold from the core of her ugliness 
there already come rewarding radiances, 
breakings out of bliss, flashings and 
promisings of a beauty that is to be. 
Every ugly duty can be kissed into 
beauty. Repellent Noornas are of the 
60 



DECISION 

blood-royal of Heaven: Heaven awaits 
those who betroth them. 

The moral effedl of this alliance on 
Shibli Bagarag is cunningly symbolised 
in the Allegory. "We can seldom be 
altogether sure of our beliefs until we 
see them shared in by others. Thought 
may take origin in solitude but it gains 
^rength, self-assurance only in society. 
We need to make converts before we 
quite realise our own conversion. It 
means much therefore to Shibli Baga- 
rag that, at this stage, his idea of 
shaving Shagpat should be shared in 
by anyone. The fact that it is shared 
in, has indeed been first thought of by 
so great a man as the Vizier — is not 
Noorna his daughter .^ — gives the idea 
added dignity, importance — social stat- 
us, say — in the eyes of the youth. This 
change in the attitude of Shibli Bag- 
arag toward the shaving of Shagpat is 
expressed, here as always, by a corre- 
sponding change in Noorna; this time, 
and note the appropriateness of it, by 
a change, a queenly magnificence of 
raiment. Suitable as romance and sig- 
nificant as allegory is it that Noorna 
should appear for betrothal "sump- 
6i 



THE WOOINGS OF NOORNA 

tuously arrayed, in perfecit queenliness, 
her head bound in a circlet of gems and 
gold, her figure lustrous with a full 
robe of flowing crimson silk. ..." 
The reference here, be it said, is to a 
class of allegorical minutiae which will 
not in this exposition receive much 
attention. The ^udent ought however 
to be on the outlook for them himself. 
They abound everywhere, and in them 
much of the convincingness and beauty 
of the Allegory resides. 

Nooma, member of the Royal Family 
of the Duties, ugliest marriageable 
member of the Family, has been woo- 
ing among the sons of men, seeking 
some best and bravest youth to be her 
betrothed. She has succeeded, and 
surely there is joy in Heaven over her 
success. Shibli Bagarag, youth pre- 
pared and disciplined of destiny, has 
accepted the terrible honour of her 
betrothal, let himself forsooth be 
thwacked into it. But what then.^ 
Others let themselves be thwacked 
out of it; count it wholly to his honour 
that he has let himself be thwacked 
into it. They are betrothed indeed who 
are wooed into betrothal by thwacks, 
62 



DECISION 

and Noorna may count on their loyalty. 
Verily Shibli Bagarag promises to take 
high rank among the aristocracy of 
servants, which is the ancient aristo- 
cracy of the Kingdom of God. 



63 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 



INSIGHT. 



NO use measuring the oil in the 
Widow's cruse unless you can 
also measure the oil that may 
come into it. It is a miraculous cruse, 
in touch with, tapping all the resources 
of oil there are. The measure of the 
widow's need of and receptacles to store 
the oil — that is the measure of the oil. 
So with man's powers. They are deter- 
mined by his needs and receptivities,, 
in other respects quite indeterminate. 
By that explain Noorna's magic. She 
constitutes for Shibli Bagarag a great 
need and stirs him to a large recep- 
tivity. She is his ambition — now that 
she is betrothed that is her lawful name 
— and all the genuine magic, the natural 
magic of human achievement comes 
through those qualities of earnestness 
and faith which are the con^ituents of 
right ambition. Earnestness multiplies 
a man, makes him a tenfold, hundred- 
67 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

fold man: faith puts him in condition 
to tap the resources of the Infinite. The 
case then with Shibli Bagarag simply 
is that being fired and elevated by am- 
bition, he develops in himself the 
amazing resources w^hich are attributed 
to the magic of Noorna. Great tasks 
draw forth great powers, and the help 
which Noorna gives the youth is simply 
that the youth himself is made larger 
and wiser by the fac5l that he has now 
a definite and commanding aim in life. 
Not till a man gets such an aim does he 
get grip of his own greatness. The "I" 
which is "yet not I" puts divine magic, 
treasures of insight and strength, at the 
'service of men who live ^renuously. 
Every rightly ambitious man is greater 
than he knows. He has his spirit-bride, 
Noorna bin Noorka, the "sorceress en- 
sorcelled" by whom wonders come. 

All right success is heralded by, made 
possible through failure. Fools may 
fail and get no benefit by failure, but 
Shibli Bagarag has stored the treas- 
ures of failure in his heart. He knows 
now that with his present tackle — ac- 
complishiTients — he can never hope to 
shave Shagpat, that only one sword, 
68 



INSIGHT 

the sword of Aklis is equal to that. 
With aspiring humility and cautious 
daring he sets out in quest of those 
spells which are the price of this sword. 
He has need of his caution. By his 
tentative efforts at a shave he has 
brought notice on himself, put the 
Shagpatians on their guard. His weak- 
ness so far has proved his security, but 
if caught meddling with Shagpat again, 
something more than contemptuous 
thwacks may be his portion. Shibli 
Bagarag does w^ell therefore to make 
the first move in his campaign the turn- 
ing of Karaz into an "enchanted ass." 
Karaz is the chief champion, the effec- 
tive defender of Shagpat. If given his 
w^ide^ signification he may be called 
the Antagonist, the Evil Principle, 
world-wide originator and supporter 
of abuses. But the Allegory merely 
demands that we view him as the 
defender of the Shagpatian abuse, at- 
taching to him as such the wide^, free^ 
of meanings. To turn Karaz into an 
enchanted ass, type of all stupidity, 
what is it but to befool the enemy, 
put him off his guard .^ "Whom the 
gods wish to ruin they first make mad" 
69 




THE QUEST OF THE) SPELLS 

or stupid, an uninteresting but equally 
effedlive form of madness. No strength 
can compensate for stupidity; the more 
you arm a stupid man the more you 
hasten his downfall. Siniple is the 
necromancy which Shibli Bagarag prac- 
tises on Karaz. A victory easily gained 
is apt of itself to jnake an enchanted ass 
of the victor. All Shibli Bagarag has 
to do is to lie low, let it be believed 
that he is done for^ thwacked into cow- 
ardly quiescence, and the vainglorious 
Shagpat affects to take his triumph 
sleepily. Pity 'tis that hairiness should 
breed barbers, but Allah for the un- 
settlement of men hath decreed it so. 
The meddlesome rogues, the crack- 
brained disturbers of things, *tis certain 
they can 't see a hair without itching to 
shave it. But Shagpat has thwacks for 
them, wallahy ! he will thwack them one 
and all until they howl. Meantime a 
good day's work has been done. Shibli 
Bagarag, barber, has got his quietus, 
been thwacked to such purpose that 
he '11 never want to handle razor more. 
Is it not a good day's work? Shagpat 
by your leave will go to sleep. That be- 
like was how the enchantment worked, 
70 



1 



INSIGHT 

though those who care to study 
Noorna's necromantic mummery will 
be rewarded by glimpses of further 
meaning. 

But an ass is a serviceable creature; 
't were pity if Karaz were to be let 
spend his brief asinine days unprofit- 
ably. You do wrong if you do n't turn 
your enemy's folly against himself. His 
Cupidity is your legitimate weapon. 
Make it minister to his defeat, perhaps 
so you may teach him certain lessons 
which will go far to compensate him 
for defeat. Shibli Bagarag has need of 
Karaz at any rate. None but Karaz can 
help him toward certain of those spells 
which are the price of the Sword. 
While the enchantment holds then let 
him mount and away. 

These are the Spells which Shibli 
Bagarag acquired : 

The first was a phial of water from 
the Well of Paravid. Virtue was in 
that water to make inanimate things 
vocal, to cause all creatures to speak 
truly the thing that was in them. What 
can this be but insight, "the seeing eye 
and the understanding heart"? The 
power to get at facts, to see through 
71 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

men and matters, ranks first among the 
Spells. Better insight and nothing else, 
than all other things without insight. 
A blind Samson, even when benevolent, 
is ever a danger. Though he may mean 
to hold up the house there is risk that 
he w^ill pull it dow^n. The man of 
action, who is merely a thinker writing 
his thoughts not in books but in deeds, 
requires above all things the Water of 
Paravid. Napoleon, the w^orld's great- 
est man of action, had it, carried it 
with him into his battlefields; by it 
he made the hills and woods to speak, 
in^ructing him to conquer. Be it un- 
derstood that this Water of Paravid 
signifies not so much the power to 
coUedl as the power to estimate facts. 
A man may be an industrious collector 
of facts, and yet fail to master their 
significance. The virtue of the Water 
is that it makes facts speak, reveal their 
true value and significance. It is this 
w^hich constitutes it a mighty spell. 

This spell never comes unpurchased, 
by pure grace of nature. To get it one 
mu^ cross a weary desert, w^hich is 
the desert of study. Well surely is it 
called a desert, for though truth is 
72 



■ 



INSIGHT 



refreshing as water, the search for it 
brings much weariness, thirstiness of 
doubt. A paradox and yet a ^atement 
of law it is that you must go to the 
desert in search of the waters^ that 
every "land flowing with milk and 
honey" is reached by way of the wil- 
derness. But note in regard to Shibli 
Bagarag that 't was on the back of 
Karaz he passed the desert, and that he 
lingered not but scurried through it 
with all possible dispatch. Therein he 
is an example. Venture not into that 
doleful desert on foot, nor even on 
some slow-ambling philosophic nag, 
else will you leave your bones to 
bleach there. Go with some definite 
objedt, mounted on some Karaz, and 
see that Karaz lingers not by the way. 
It was not as a searcher after truth 
in general that Shibli Bagarag sought 
tiiv. vvell. The truth in regard to Shag- 
pat was what he was after. His object 
was to get at the facts of the case, to 
master the problem of Shagpatism. 
Hence Karaz, as champion of the Shag- 
patian delusion, could alone carry him 
to the well. Whether in the form of 
enchanted ass or fire-breathing genie, 
73 



i 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

there was no help for it but Shibli 
Bagarag mu^ mount Karaz. It is only 
from the facts you can learn the facts., 
and close personal touch with them is 
necessary. If the back of Karaz is too 
dangerous or too filthy for your 
mount, let that be the end. There is 
no going to the well by proxy, giving 
commission to another to mount and 
bring you the water. Nor is it per- 
mitted you before you mount Karaz 
to put great coverings on his back to 
keep you from touch of his repulsive- 
ness. If you are fa^idious with respect 
to filth you will never do much to 
cleanse the world. 

As a rule it is not difficult to keep 
Karaz in the form of an enchanted ass 
yrhile he carries you to the well. Even 
though he perceives you are in search 
of truth, yet will the enchantment 
generally hold. For the world's great 
lies seldom quite know themselves to 
be lies. The fact that they have place 
among the things that are, that they 
are rooted in the established order of 
society, gives them a blinding sense of 
reality, security. Shagpat does not see 
.why he need fear inve^igation. Let 

74 



INSIGHT 

Shibli Bagarag by all means investigate, 
if such be his humour. What harm 
can the inquisitive youth do Shagpat? 
Shagpat will yet know better. The only 
thing fatal to a lie is truth. It cannot 
be crushed by persecution — Satan be- 
ing able to flourish under martyrdom 
as well as his betters — but at touch of 
the water of truth it shrivels up into 
primitive nothingness. But darkness is 
arrogant in blunders. The thing to be 
reformed always, though unwittingly, 
helps the reformer to the truth by 
which he reforms it. Papacy actively 
helped Luther to his insight into the 
errors of Papacy. Like an enchanted 
ass, type of all stupidity, Rome sent her 
creatures to hawk indulgences through 
Germany, thereby compelling Luther to 
open his eyes, carrying him at break- 
neck speed to the water of Paravid. It 
is always so in life. Men see the right 
by the assistance of the wrong. They 
are carried to truth on the back of false- 
hood. Error plays the ass and helps 
the reformer. 

The description of the Well is finely 
significant, and entirely catholic in 
every detail. Round it sat idlers, 
75 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

bubble-blowers, players with the waters. 
These are dilettante students, strenuous 
triflers, industrious dabblers in intell- 
ectual pursuits; and of them great 
portion of educated society is com- 
posed. They play with truth for the 
refined amusement it affords them, but 
never plunge boldly into the Well, to 
emerge therefrom with bleeding hand,, 
carrying treasure. Truth in its saving 
power is not for those who seek it out 
of curiosity. Aimless livers cannot be 
clear thinkers. The waters of Paravid 
are for those only who have betrothed 
their Noorna. It is not a little know- 
ledge that is a dangerous thing. It is 
when men play with knowledge, acquire 
and hold it without moral earnestness,, 
that there is danger; and then indeed 
the greater the knowledge the greater 
the danger. The intellectual without 
the spiritual, knowledge without earn- 
estness is a peril to the soul. Either 
do n't meddle with truth at all, or else 
plunge boldly into the well. 

A miracle and no less is this Well 

of Paravid. "The sky is clear in it, 

cool in it, and the whole earth imaged 

therein." So suggestive, so grandly 

76 



INSIGHT 

free is the symbolism, it would be sin 
to cramp it into definite meaning. But 
take it, if you like, to represent the 
heart of man — that implies no cramp- 
ing. Were the water of the heart un- 
fouled by vice, unruffled by passion, 
the things of heaven and earth would 
be reflected therein. Nothings images 
all things but man who is himself all 
things. 

The Well seemed "of the very depth 
of the earth itself," yet Shibli Bagarag's 
report of it was: "No sooner had I 
touched the bottom of the Well than 
my head emerged from the surface." 
Is it not always so in the quest after 
truth ? You may dive deep, lose your- 
self for a time in the waters of doubt 
and difficulty, yet the moment you 
solve the problem — get to the bottom 
of the Well — all is clear, you are in 
daylight immediately. Simplicity is the 
hall-mark of truth. The proof that you 
really understand a thing is that you 
detect its simplicity. The proof that 
you have reached the bottom of the 
Well is that you behold the daylight. 

Shibli Bagarag has secured a phial 
of the water of Paravid. Though the 
77 



THE QUEST OF THE, SPELLS 

phial is labelled "Shagpatism," let it not 
be thought that its virtues are limited 
to giving him knowledge of and in- 
sight into that special problem. The 
special is the "way out to the universal. 
By mastering one subject, especially 
such a great social subject as Shag- 
patism, Shibli Bagarag has developed 
himself generally, widened his mental 
outlook, become more capable of grap- 
pling with, piercing into the truth of 
all things. The phial would be service- 
able to him for any purpose, but none 
the less it is binding on him to devote 
it specially to one. It is not for him 
to wander excursively over the fields 
of life, dabbling in many interests. As 
betrothed his liberty is curtailed. Under 
the auspices of Noorna the phial has 
been secured; in the services of Noorna 
it must be spent. 



78 



ENTHUSIASM. 



THE next spell to be acquired was 
three hairs from the tail of the 
horse Garraveen. It was the 
horse "heroes of bliss bestride on 
great days." "Speed quivered on his 
flanks like lightning." To mount him 
was to feel oneself on a "bounding- 
wave of bliss." Manifestly this glor- 
ious creature symbolises enthusiasm. 
Its fire and freedom, "dark flushes 
of ireful vigour," finely suggest the 
inspired ease, the fierce delight of an 
enthusiast in his work. Enthusiasm, 
equally with insight, is necessary for 
high achievement. It is the God-intoxi- 
cation of the soul, the mood and the 
moment of genius; great things are 
done in it. Enthusiasm without know- 
ledge makes a man a firebrand, dan- 
gerous to the state; knowledge without 
enthusiasm makes him not indeed 
negligible — the man who knows is 
79 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

never negligible — but one "who in his 
own person can accomplish but little. 

The horse was made to come by 
Shibli Bagarag blowing the Call of 
Battle; it was caught by being struck 
on the fetlock by a Musk-ball; it was 
tamed by having the figure of the 
Crescent traced between its eyes. These 
three actions represent three forms of 
enthusiasm — the three hairs which 
make the spell. The horse coming at 
the Call of Battle symbolises the war- 
rior's joy, the "stern delight of battle 
with one's peers." Such enthusiasm is 
an affair of the blood, a mere pugilistic 
fervour; but in respect of its strength- 
giving qualities — and that is the point 
of the Allegory — it takes worthy rank 
among the three hairs. Opposition — 
the Call of Battle — sooner than any- 
thing else puts a man on his mettle. 
Luther confessed that he never was at 
his best until roused, made angry by 
opposition. All great men of action in 
that matter resemble Luther. The joy 
of battle is their strength. 

This enthusiasm may be partly ac- 
quired, but it comes mainly by the 
grace of nature. No man can be a 
80 



ENTHUSIASM 

soldier without drill, but drill itself 
!never made a soldier. Shibli Bagarag 
has always had this war-instinct. There 
is battle in his blood. Shagpat thinks 
he has given him his quietus, thwacked 
him into quiescence. He will yet know 
that these thwacks were but the Call 
of Battle, putting Shibli Bagarag on 
his mettle, bringing him Garraveen, 
the mighty horse. 

The Musk-ball may be said to signify 
sensuous glamour, and in connection 
with the horse Garraveen to indicate 
the enthusiasm which comes from gen- 
uine delight in work. It is the joy of 
the artist in his high creative flights, 
the glad, passionate activity in which 
irksome elements of drudgery vanish 
and purposes are accomplished with 
happy ease. This form of enthusiasm 
is at once the inspirer and rewarder 
of the world's best work. Genius is 
extasy, brings in its workings the joy 
of extasy. It is the "I" merged and 
sublimated in the "yet not I," man 
carried out of and so entering into 
kingly possession of himself. Genius 
may have as its concomitant the "fac- 
ulty of taking infinite pains," but in 
8i 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

itself genius knows nothing of pains. 
It is an inspired state; could it con- 
tinue, be Shibli Bagarag's in dependable 
possession, he would scarcely need 
other strength. But of necessity it can 
be his only in brief and fickle visitation. 
There are ploddings, drudgeries, drab 
and dreary toils before him, and for 
these he needs another strength. The 
Call of Battle enthusiasm, the Musk- 
ball enthusiasm for his great moods, 
his stirring, dramatic moments; but 
that he may be loyal on his dismal 
days, cope with life's routine of unin- 
teresting duties, Shibli Bagarag must 
have a tame Garraveen — a drudge's 
enthusiasm. Though enthusiasm, by its 
nature, is that which banishes drudgery, 
yet the phrase, drudge's enthusiasm, 
implies no contradiction. For enthus- 
iasm banishes drudgery by the paradox- 
ical method of teaching man mightily 
to drudge. God's way is to lead man 
out of the wood by driving him further 
into it, to bring him salvation from 
drudgery by making him an enthusiastic 
drudge. A drudge's enthusiasm is dis- 
tinguished from, ennobled above other 
enthusiasms, in that it is purely an 
82 



ENTHUSIASM 

affair of the will. There are periods 
when all that is good in a man must 
retire into his will, find there its sole 
conscious existence. Love is normally 
a sentiment, an emotion, rather than 
a direct affair of the will. Yet there are 
moments — they are its tonic moments 
— when love's glad expansiveness, its 
rainbow-tinted emotions quite vanish, 
when it consciously exists not as sen- 
timent but as pure volition. The verb 
to love has an imperative mood, and 
it is in such mood it confirms, reinvig- 
orates itself, finds its nobility. So is 
it with a drudge's enthusiasm. It is 
enthusiasm of the bare will, enthusiasm 
divorced from its extatic delights., 
its easy and spontaneous strengths, 
stripped indeed of all its sweets, made 
an affair of mere tenacity, stubbornness 
of purpose. No God-intoxication of the 
soul does this sort of enthusiasm seem, 
rather, maybe, a God-desertion; but 
man is never so near God as when he 
serves Him uncheered by the light of 
His countenance. For verily there is 
divinity in drudgery. God tingles in the 
warrior's nerves, flashes in the artist's 
brain, hides incalculable in Godhood 
83 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

in the drudge's heart. In drudgery 
lies the root enthusiasm of life. Every 
drudge is in training to be a genius. 
If the world's best -work is never 
drudgery, yet without drudgery the 
world would have no best work. 
Wanted then this mightiest among 
spells, a drudge's enthusiasm. Wanted 
Garraveen, the glorious horse, to be 
tamed, yoked, set to the plough. Gar- 
raveen, let it be admitted, can be tamed 
by many means. Satan has his drudges 
as well as God, nor are they behind 
God's in enthusiasm. Men oftimes 
prove their divinity by the thorough- 
ness with which they violate it, the 
mightiness of their drudgery to attain 
paltry and unworthy ends. Garraveen 
can indeed be tamed in many ways, 
but for arduous, world-helping work 
such as Shibli Bagarag is engaged in 
one power alone can permanently suf- 
fice. It is religion — tracing the sacred 
sign of the Crescent on the forehead 
of the horse. But why religion ? Could 
not the sense of duty serve Shibli 
Bagarag as well? Maybe, but as matter 
of fact the world's great exemplars of 
duty have, perhaps without exception, 
84 



ENTHUSIASM 

been devoutly religious men. For 
somehow the sense of duty, when it is 
strong enough to urge to great self- 
denials, seems inevitably and in the 
nature of things to find for itself relig- 
ious sanction. Duty is so near God 
that the man who grasps duty grasps 
God also. It is vain therefore to exalt 
duty to a position of independence; 
duty itself repudiates independence, 
clings for sanction to the throne of 
God. Rationalism cannot explain why 
this should be so. Man is too deep 
for his own fathoming. He cannot 
solve the mystery of his own spirit, 
make clear to himself the secret that 
underlies its instincts and impulses. 
Anyhow 'tis certain that the Allegory 
here grips the truth of things. Shibli 
Bagarag knows Noorna as duty; if he 
would be altogether loyal to her his 
heart must further acknowledge her to 
be divine, know her to be indeed "Stern 
Daughter of the Voice of God." No- 
thing can enable him to drudge enthu- 
siastically at the world-helping work he 
has undertaken but religion — the sacred 
sign of the Crescent on the horse's 
fiorehead. To be altogether strong, to 
85 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

be broad based in his strength, to 
have that calm, continuous enthusiasm 
which, as nearly as may be, is inde- 
pendent of the tides of blood, the 
moods and fluctuations of spirit, it is 
necessary that Shibli Bagarag should 
know himself in that humblest yet 
noblest of capacities — servant of God,, 
mouthpiece of the Universal. He who 
seeks his own glory sickens at even 
w^hile he pursues the search: he who 
seeks God's glory grows in ardour with 
the years. The horse Garraveen is 
tamed^ made capable of drudgery by the 
power of religion. This spell, third and 
mightiest in that trinity of strengths 
which are the three hairs, will outlast 
the others, be at every time available. 
The time may come when, sobered 
and unmettled by age, Shibli Bagarag 
will no longer be as a war-horse neigh- 
ing at the Call of Battle, The time may 
come when, broken and weary, the 
Musk-ball will quite fail of its glamour, 
and work be mere drudgery. Even so 
he will not faint nor grow weary. The 
mark of the Crescent, the seal of God, 
is on his spirit. "As sorrowing yet al- 
yray rejoicing" he can endure to the end. 
86 



ENTHUSIASM 

Youthful enthusiasm cannot be alto- 
gether circumspect; it would argue 
lack of enthusiasm if it were. The 
art of combining zeal with discretion 
comes only with the years, with time's 
educative burden of blunders. But 
blunders are educative in no other 
sense than that they have to be paid 
for; and while God keeps the avenging 
of crimes in his own hands, he en- 
trusts to fortune the task of avenging 
blunders. Shibli Bagarag blunders and 
suffers. He refuses to dismount from 
Garraveen, that "bounding wave of 
bliss," laughs at Noorna's w^arnings 
about the "red pit of destruction." 
Woe to the rider when Garraveen gets 
the bit between his teeth. Enthusiasm 
must be held in check, made subject 
to the manifold restraints of patience 
and policy. Perhaps never yet came 
the right by quixotic and untimely tilt- 
ing against the wrong; only such poor 
judges are we of the times and seasons 
that we can seldom positively tell 
when tilting is untimely. Shibli Bag- 
arag's fault was not that he erred in 
judgment, but that he altogether neg- 
lected to Judge. He simply let his zeal 
87 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

run away with him. Under discreet 
treatment Karaz might, some little time 
longer, have remained an enchanted 
ass, subservient to uses. But the un- 
veiled and intemperate policy of the 
reformer broke the spell. Karaz became 
resentfully awake, no longer an ass but 
a mighty genie, and at his hands Shibli 
Bagarag suffered a most sobering fall. 



88 



IDEALISM 



THE third Spell to be acquired 
was the Lily of the Enchanted 
Sea. It was a Lily of sur- 
passing beauty and, for such was 
its virtue, it was the ordeal of beauty 
for all things. Nothing earthly, not 
the fairest of human characters, not 
the best of human institutions, but 
blinked and grew blemish-marked in its 
presence. What can this terrible Lily 
be but the Ideal, the soul's vision of 
what ought to be? That is the dream 
which puts to blush earth's best reality. 
And since it is on its aesthetic side that 
a man's Ideal appeals to him, since the 
good visions itself as the beautiful, 
could anything more fitly symbolise it 
than the Lily in its sweet and stainless 
beauty ? 

Without this Lily Shibli Bagarag 
would have been no reformer, but a 
blind and bungling iconoclast. The 
89 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

reformer must have the prophetic 
vision, must see the things that are not 
if he would helpfully meddle with the 
things that are. Yet he must not be 
an uncurbed dreamer picturing expan- 
sively to himself a new heaven and a 
new earth unrelated to, not to be 
evolved out of, the old. The reformer's 
dreams must be practical. Be his 
head however high in the clouds, his 
feet must keep level with earth. It was 
happily so with Shibli Bagarag. In his 
search for the Ideal he took constant 
counsel with the actual. The Water 
of Paravid — insight into things as they 
are — was had recourse to on every oc- 
casion of doubt. To understand the 
actual is to perceive the ideal. Never 
in the realm of unchecked dreams, but 
only in the actual, bound up with it, 
emerging out of it is the true ideal to 
be found. Hence it was that Shibli 
Bagarag, the practical reformer, con- 
tinually used the Water of Paravid to 
guide him to the Lily of the Enchanted 
Sea. 

Put it that Karaz were still an (en- 
chanted ass, could his back have served 
Shibli Bagarag on this as on former 
90 



IDEALISM 

quests? It seems impossible. Shibli 
Bagarag in this quest had to be as a 
free spirit "voyaging through strange 
seas of thought alone." Not the back 
of Karaz, but a finer conveyance, even 
the cockle-shell of imagination, could 
serve him now. None the less 't was 
a misfortune — the untimely disenchant- 
ment of Karaz, for were he still in his 
asshood, though he could not help, he 
would not hinder. He would eat the 
thistles of idleness, no menace to Shibli 
Bagarag. As it is, Karaz, malevolent 
genie, has now to be reckoned w^ith. 
His first effort, a cunning one, is to lead 
Shibli Bagarag astray by an appeal to 
the youth's easily roused vanity. At 
the flatteries of Karaz, disguised as a 
sea-captain, Shibli Bagarag "puffed his 
chest, and straightened his legs like a 
cock, and was as a man on whom the 
Sultan had bestowed a dress of hon- 
our." If he can be kept in this humor, 
hopeless must be his quest after the 
Lily. A man may be vain and yet a 
true thinker, but to the extent that he 
puts his vanity into his thinking his 
thought is vitiated. Thinking is an im- 
personal process; cannot bear the taint 
91 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

of selfhood. Especially true is this 
of Shibli Bagarag's present thinking. 
Ideals of whatever kind adumbrate 
God, bring man fearsomely near to 
God. It must be in the spirit of 
worship man struggles after the ideal. 
Shibli Bagarag by struggling after it in 
the spirit of vanity has put himself out 
of the way. His going on board ship 
with Karaz is merely the symbol of 
this spiritual errancy. Alas that Noorna 
is not by his side now, surely her 
counsels are necessary and by them 
alone can he hope to prevail. The 
story has it that Noorna had to take 
leave of her betrothed in order to 
"counteract the machinations of Karaz." 
But her betrothed being the butt of these 
machinations, suffering this moment 
under them, is it not by his side and 
nowhere else that Noorna, as counter- 
actor, ought to be? But in this matter 
the wording of the story fails to convey 
the subtle truth of the Allegory. The 
fact is that Shibli Bagarag, in his quest 
of the Ideal, could not carry with him 
as conscious ambition, ever present 
sense of duty, the idea of shaving 
Shagpat. The quest even of practical 
92 



IDEALISM 

ideals carries a man, in some isense, 
away from the practical. He must seek 
the Ideal for its own sake, and with no 
ulterior object in view. To the extent 
that he has ulterior object, however 
worthy, in view, he must be said to fail 
in pure loyalty to the Ideal. The truth 
has its uses; but if it is sought prim- 
arily for its uses it is not worthily 
sought, and will scarcely be rightly 
found. It is well then . for Shibli 
Bagarag that he is not accompanied by 
Noorna in his quest of the Lily. But 
note that while his ambition is in abey- 
ance, it is only consciously so. It has 
ceased to be the thing thought on, but 
it has not ceased, cannot cease, to 
be the power behind his thought. So 
closely has it gripped him that he does 
not need to be thinking on it to be 
under its influence. It has passed into 
his subconscious self, that sublim- 
inal region, miraculous laboratory of 
thought, whence well up guidances, 
impulses, intuitions, those things which 
make the man. Thus though Noorna 
has gone, Shibli Bagarag has with 
him as her representative the Talk- 
ing Hawk. For the present he has 
93 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

ceased to think of his ambition, but 
his ambition is, so to speak, thinking 
for him — flashing forth in his need 
warnings, admonitions, sparks of guid- 
ance. The swift pouncing swoop of 
the hawk finely symbolises these sparks 
of guidance, abrupt and w^aming gleams 
of intuition. By the subtle manner in 
which they are associated with Noorna 
we have suggested to us a noble art, 
no less than the art w^hereby each man 
may summon to himself a guardian 
angel, have it with him in his need. A 
great love, a passionate ambition is 
omnipresent. When not in a man's 
consciousness it is yet effectively be- 
hind it, flashing reproof upon him in 
his errancy, and guidance in his doubt. 
As a good angel it takes lodgment in 
his soul, keeping v/atch and guard there 
that he lapse not into disloyalty. This 
privilege pertains to passionate love, 
earnest ambition of every sort. When 
Noorna departs, as from time to time 
she must, she does not leave herself 
without witness. The Talking Hawk, 
the Socratic SaUiiov takes her place. 

As has been said taking ship Nvith 
Karaz is merely symbolical expression 
94 



IDEALISM 

of the fact that Shibli Bagarag's vanity 
has led him astray. He is saved, yet so 
as by shipwreck. How otherwise could 
he be saved .^ Woe to a vain man who 
prospers in his ways. Vanity overfed 
on success becomes little to be distin- 
guished from insanity; but in failure 
there is wholesome medicine. Scarcely 
could a thoroughly successful man, 
were there any such, enter the Kingdom 
of Heaven; for though the Kingdom 
be infinitely wide and high, the en- 
trance door is low; one must stoop 
and humble himself in order to pass. 
We would all be lost but for our fail- 
ures; it is in the shipwreck of our lives 
that we find opportunity of salvation. 
Therefore it is that God continually 
thwarts us to bless us, stands up against 
us that we rush not presumptuously to 
our ruin. 

When Christian went off the path 
his penalty was to fall into the hands 
of Giant Despair, and to be kept pris- 
oner in Doubting Castle. Shibli Bag- 
arag's penalty for similar errancy was 
to flounder, well nigh unto drowning, 
in the waters. Meredith's symbolism is 
richer than Bunyan's, and has the merit 
95 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

of being Biblical. The consciousness 
of sin takes the solid ground from 
under a man, makes him welter, toss, 
struggle amid a jumble of doubts, fears, 
despondencies. He is like a drowning 
man, his supports gone, his wild strug- 
gles to right himself but plunging him 
deeper under the waters. Bunyan's 
symbolism for this state of mind is 
lifeless, artificial, as compared with 
Meredith's. Neither — and here also the 
two Allegorists are giving symbolical 
expression to substantially the same 
truth — is the key by which Christian 
delivered himself from imprisonment to 
be counted equal for suggestiveness to 
the description of the Hawk supporting 
Shibli Bagarag in the waters, holding 
him up by the Hair, the Identical. In 
Shibli Bagarag's case, any man's case, 
the Identical must be taken to represent 
that something which is the ultimate 
reality, the root-strength of his nature. 
Many supports, many faiths man may 
have in his easy, normal hours; but 
in moments of extremity these, in so 
far as they are superficial, vanish, and 
the root-faith, the basal strength of his 
nature is what he leans on. That root 
96 



IDEALISM 

faith, whatever it be, is the Identical. 
\A/^hen all else is gone it is by that 
he is buoyed up, supported in the 
waters. Men often mistake the fash- 
ions they affect for the faiths they 
hold, but not during an experience in 
the waters. In shipwreck they discover 
their Identical. A man can never carry 
his heart with him into the barren 
realms of agnosticism. He may profess 
a know-nothing attitude towards the 
mystery of things, but his heart, being 
itself the mirror and epitome of that 
mystery, bursts mockingly upon him 
with its stores of ungotten knowledge. 
Even the agnostic has thus a faith 
which his intellect, labour suicidally as 
it likes, cannot destroy. He also is 
held up in the waters by his Identical. 
The wonders performed by Shibli 
Bagarag in his interview with the King 
of Oolb are readily understandable in 
the light of explanations now given. 
The interview is notable mainly for the 
shave which the youth was permitted 
to give King and courtiers. By his 
Paravidic eloquence he managed to 
convince the King that change with 
respect to Shagpatian fashions was im- 
97 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

minent, that a new and happier era for 
barbercraft was due. The King, be 
it noted, did not trouble to enquire 
whether this change would be for the 
better. His one point of policy was to 
support the winning side; his one point 
of genius to discover a day in advance 
of the w^orld what the winning side was 
to be. Since barbercraft was destined 
to be in the ascendant the King then 
and there had himself shaved. It was 
a great matter for Shibli Bagarag — a 
mighty furtherance to his quest after 
the Ideal — this shave of King and court 
of Oolb. So limited are the powers of 
man that he can seldom be quite sure 
in regard to the changes he advocates 
how far they would work for ^ood, 
until he sees them, studies them in op- 
eration. Thought needs the verification 
of fact, must give birth to fact before 
it can estimate its own value. Actual 
experiments in reform are invariably 
necessary to make clear to the reformer 
the real meaning and drift of his work. 
Shibli Bagarag is therefore in educative 
surroundings. He is between the old 
and the new, the unshaved and the 
shaved; has opportunity of comparing 
98 



IDEALISM 

them, studying the nature and effects 
of the shave, and so arriving at a clearer 
conception of his Ideal — his shaved 
Shagpat. Meredith read deeply into 
the reality of things when he brought 
Shibli Bagarag to the City of Oolb in 
his quest of the Lily. 

Reference has already been made to 
the fact that men who succeed in 
banishing any tyranny of lies from the 
world have generally at one period of 
their lives themselves been under that 
tyranny; that indeed it is in the process 
of emancipating themselves that they 
emancipate the world. In that part of 
the Allegory entitled "The Flashes of 
the Blade" we have an account of how 
Shibli Bagarag liberated the world: in 
the story of his relations with Princess 
Goorelka, and his plucking the Lily, we 
have an account of how he liberated 
himself. Noise, commotion enough, as 
will be seen, there was in the objective 
side of his work — liberating the world. 
The emancipation of his own thought 
was conducted without observation. 
The China jar of wine which drugged 
the sentinels, and the dress of Samar- 
cand which rendered Shibli Bagarag 
99 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

invisible, symbolise the fact that the 
process of thought emancipation is in 
itself a secret process. But if carried 
on by itself it would soon also become 
an arrested process. It is impossible 
to continue to receive light unless one 
is at the same time trying to impart it. 
Giving is the price of getting; teaching 
the condition of learning. Hence neither 
the China jar nor the dress o£ Samar- 
cand could save such a youth as Shibli 
Bagarag from detection. All that is 
meant is that his quest, in so far as 
it was purely subjective, did not itself 
lay him open to detection. He attained 
unto light quietly; it was when he at- 
tempted to spread the light that there 
was noise. 

Soon as Shibli Bagarag had plucked 
the Lily behold the beautiful Goorelka 
shrivelled into ugliness, and Noorna — 
that still uncomely one — burst on his 
enraptured eyes "a young perfection," 
"the very •-'dream of loveliness." It 
will be enough to state that Goorelka's 
beauty may be taken to represent the 
fascin'''"->n which, owing to false stan- 
dards Ox taste, erroneous social ideals, 
the Shagpat superstition exercised over 

100 



IDEALISM 

men. On that interpretation Noorna, 
the negation of Goorelka, must in this 
connection and in respect of her ugli- 
ness, represent the abhorrence with 
which society viewed the idea of non- 
hairiness. Fashion rules the world's 
thinking as tyrannically as the world's 
tailoring, and fashion had decreed that 
Goorelka alone was beautiful. For a 
time Shibli Bagarag was led by the 
fashion. Youth is necessarily recep- 
tive. It drinks in with easy unquestion- 
ing faith the opinions and prejudices 
of the age. But being destined to great 
things, Shibli Bagarag early began to 
put the world through the sieve of 
thought. While yet gazing fascinated 
on the face of Goorelka the Talking 
Hawk began to shriek disapproval, the 
intuitions of his soul to prophesy div- 
iner beauty. By following enquiringly, 
though still fascinated, on the track of 
the false — trailing behind Goorelka 
through the Enchanted Tea — he at 
length came upon the Lily. The at- 
tainment of an independent standard 
of judgment set him free from, conven- 
tional standards. The fashic.-ridden 
world might continue to proclaim 

lOI 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

Goorelka beautiful; him at least it 
could no longer deceive. He stood on 
the hill-tops of life, fronting the light 
of God, seeing Goorelka and Noorna as 
they w^ere. 

This happy transformation of Noorna 
is a great matter for Shibli Bagarag. 
It means that his inward struggle is 
over, that he is now in a position to 
throw himself whole-heartedly into the 
work of shaving Shagpat. It is seen 
to be such noble, world-helping work 
that, despite its difficulties and dangers., 
he cannot but be in love with it. 
Noorna may still bring him thwacks, 
but for the joy of being betrothed to 
such a beauty, he will count thwacks 
a small matter. Shibli Bagarag has at- 
tained unto light. His Ideal has burst 
upon him in its beauty, and Noorna — 
as personifying the effort to realise the 
Ideal — has become correspondingly 
beautiful. It was long before Luther 
fully grasped his Lily — his Ideal of a 
Reformed Church. But when he did 
his Noorna also burst into beauty. His 
battle with Rome no longer meant la 
battle with himself. In respect to that 
Luther was henceforth at peace, could 

102 



IDEALISM 

only be at peace in the midst of war. 

Karaz, the enchanted ass, conveyed 
Shibli Bagarag to the Well of Paravid: 
the cockle-shell of Goorelka conveyed 
him to the Lily of the Enchanted Sea. 
In that there lie several fruitful parallels 
and contrasts. Enough here to state 
that what is next door to the truth is 
never a vacuum but a falsehood. 
Activity of thought, though thought 
should be erroneous, is better than ab- 
sence of thought, for truth, while it 
may dispossess error, never dispos- 
sesses emptiness. So with -worship, 
which is merely the heart's recognition 
of truth. Better than to have no Ideal 
is it to trail fascinated after a false 
one; for the earnestly worshipping eye 
is after all the deeply enquiring one, 
and to such truth comes. 

Everything in this beautiful and won- 
derful description of the Enchanted Sea 
and the Lily therefore is significant. 
But little further interpretation is re- 
quired. For this Enchanted Sea is to 
none of us an unfamiliar Sea. We have 
ourselves, even the least poetic of us, 
sailed thereon, perhaps even plucked 
one of its Lilies. Would we know 
103 



THE QUEST OF THE SPELLS 

whether the Lily of our plucking is 
worthless flower or potent spell ? Then 
let us see to its root. Shibli Bagarag's 
Lily had for its root a living, palpitating 
heart. Many flowers, similar maybe in 
appearance, have for their root nothing 
better than somnolent, ill-fed brains. 
Only Lilies with heart for root are 
Spells acknowledged in Aklis. An Ideal 
which lives merely in the intellect is a 
scheme, a theory, an airy and unfruitful 
speculation. An Ideal which is rooted 
in and fed by the heart is a masterful 
power, compelling to action. 

But perhaps we leave our Lily un- 
plucked, content ourselves with drink- 
ing its dew. Shibli Bagarag was about 
to succumb to this temptation when 
the watchful Hawk pounced on the 
proffered hand of temptress Goorelka, 
scattering the dew, and screaming this 
reproof: "Pluck up the Lily ere it is 
too late O Fool! — the dew was poison. 
Pluck it by the root with thy right 
hand." Clearly the temptation here was 
to treat the Ideal in dilettante fashion, 
to suck its sweets, rave, enthuse over 
its beauty — and nothing more. When 
a man makes noble thought minister to 
104 



IDEALISM 

his self-indulgence, when he broods 
idly, for the sweetness it brings him, 
on what is beautiful and sublime, he 
is but poisoning his own soul. The 
poison is subtle, hard to be detected. 
Man is apt to think that he is serving 
God because he enthuses over the 
things of God; that he is religious 
because he luxuriates in the sweets of 
religion. Truly self-indulgence in re- 
gard to noble things is subtlest, hardest 
to be detected of poisons, but deadly 
poison none the less. Be practical with 
your Ideal. Pluck the Lily "by the root 
with thy right hand." The dew that 
is in it — the sweets of sentimentalism, 
of enthusing, philandering — are pois- 
oned sweets. May the Talking Hawk 
be with you in your need to teach you 
thatl 



105 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 



SPECULATION. 



ALLEGORY divests life's exper- 
iences of their time and space 
relations, and rearranges them 
according to their thought relations. 
The law of association is ignored, the 
deeper law of spiritual affinity takes its 
place. In the light of this principle the 
time order in which these three Spells 
were acquired must be discounted. 
Doubtless the basal Spell was insight 
into facts, and in making it the first to 
be acquired Meredith may be considered 
true not only to the order of logic, but 
to some extent even to that of time. 
But practically the quest of all three 
Spells was pursued simultaneously. 

It is manifest that they are genuine 
Spells, that the Allegory is broad-based 
on the truth of things. Insight — accu- 
rate knowledge of things as they are: 
Idealism — clear vision of things as they 
ought to be : Enthusiasm — strength to 
109 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

change things as they are into things 
as they ought to be — can it be denied 
that these, no more and no less, are 
the spells needed for success, whatever 
be the sphere of man's activity? It is 
not, of course, the worker's tools which 
these spells symbolise; it is merely 
the skill to properly handle his tools. 
But the skill is everything since God 
is glad to avail himself of all the 
talent there is. If incompetent work- 
men compete for work, work, in return, 
competes for competent workmen. 

But the candidate for greatness is not 
yet great. He has the spells indeed, 
but as yet he has put them to no im- 
portant use. There is no notable work 
to his credit. Were his career to end 
at this stage, he would, at best be num- 
bered among the brilliant possibilities, 
the great might-have-beens of life. But 
history has no room, nor has nature 
a crown for the might-have-beens. On 
then Shibli Bagarag, swift and sure as 
arrow from bow, to claim the Sword 
and complete the shave. Do something, 
be crowned w^ith an achievement, Mas- 
ter of an Event; then indeed you will 
be great, God and man acknowledging 
no 



SPECULATION 

your greatness. But hacks that are 
always on the trot never win races; 
and men who do n't know the art of 
rational idleness never attain unto 
mellow humanity. Shibli Bagarag is 
going to linger awhile on the Enchant- 
ed Sea — the realm of imagination — to 
dream dreams. Do n't count the study 
of dreams necessarily a vain study. 
Even the irresponsible dreams of sleep 
may play a great part in life, thrust 
themselves in among realities, twist and 
turn them with necromantic power. 
And as for day-dreams, are they not 
the origin and breeding ground alike of 
man's baseness and nobility? All his 
life-history is foreshadowed in his 
dreams. "Out of the heart are the 
issues of life"; hence in day-dreams, 
the unchecked wellings up of the heart, 
the inmost key to human character is to 
be found. Know what a man's imag- 
ination revels in, what his thoughts, 
when off the chain, scamper back to, 
and you know the inmost secret of the 
man. Also in relation to the world, 
man is a creator in virtue of being a 
dreamer. It is not only that every fact 
was once a fancy, that all that is 
III 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

realised on earth -was once in air, but 
that to the last, the root, the essence of 
every actuality remains a dream. When 
the root ■withers, when the dream van- 
ishes, the actuality is on the way back 
to primitive nothingness. Certainly 
then the study of dreams need not be a 
vain study. 

Consider a noble dream that came to 
Shibli Bagarag on the Enchanted Sea. 

Less even than other parts of the 
Allegory can the story of Noorna and 
the Genie Karaz bear prosaic thorough- 
ness of interpretation. It is essentially 
a dream-story, a fabric of visionary 
thought. This is manifest from the 
nature of the story itself, but Meredith 
gives additional guidance. The story 
was related by Noorna as she and her 
betrothed sailed the Enchanted Sea on 
a "pearly Shell." This shell — as being 
the gift of Rabesqurat, Queen of Illu- 
sions—necessarily itself represented an 
illusion. As such it is not to be taken 
as something different from, but merely 
as outward symbol of Shibli Bagarag's 
dream — the indication that it was a 
dream. Dreams indeed are the only 
vessels on which man floats over the 

112 



SPECULATION 

Enchanted Sea, and this noble dream- 
vessel, this "pearly shell flashing crim- 
son, amethyst and emerald" finely sym- 
bolises the noble dream dreamed by 
Shibli Bagarag thereon. The case with 
him was that under the glamour of a 
freshly-gotten Idealism, lighting up life 
to him with new meanings, he proved 
fruitful in speculations, excursions of 
thought. His reason turned dreamer, 
and the result was Philosophy; for 
what is Philosophy but the dream of 
reason.^ It is not however the Phil- 
osophy of the schools, or anything re- 
sembling it we have here. Its kinship 
rather is with the Philosophy of the 
seer; for seers also, in respect that their 
dreams are dreams of reason, must be 
said to have their Philosophy. But 
reason with them is in extatic condition 
— subject so to illuminations, inspira- 
tions, visitings of God, but subject 
also, unless in special guidance, to 
disturbing and chaotic influences. 
The prophet's dream may flash forth 
wondrous truth, but in form it is 
seldom other than broken, incoherent, 
irrational. Shibli Bagarag's dream is 
of this nature. Its three outstanding 
"3 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

symbolical characters are Noorna, Karaz 
and Goorelka; and in regard to none 
of them is it possible to define their 
symbolism. It is not a matter of mere 
inability to give them precise labelling; 
that, as being more or less a feature 
of the Allegory throughout, would call 
for no comment. What is meant is that 
the characters here are practically 
indeterminate. They represent simply 
what Meredith chooses for the occasion 
to make them represent. He heaps 
thoughts incongruously upon them., 
and so naive is he^ so apparently un- 
conscious of the incongruity, as to 
compel the conviction that the atmos- 
phere of the story is a dream-atmos- 
phere. It is by treating it as a dream, 
not boggling over incoherences and 
incongruities, but accepting contentedly 
such gleams of meaning as it offers, 
that interpretation becomes possible. 
I give what seems the general signifi- 
cance of the story. 

Noorna and Goorelka, here as always, 
are opposites. They stand respectively 
for right and wrong relationship to 
Karaz — him in whom resides the Power, 
the Magical Hair. Goorelka, by means 
114 



SPECULATION 

of the Ring, is the first to gain power 
over Karaz. She uses her power wick- 
edly, transforming men into singing 
birds, peopling her cage with them. 
Noorna afterwards also manages to 
gain possession of the Ring, but she 
puts the power it brings her to w^orthier 
use. First she disenchants the occu- 
pants of Goorelka's cage, restoring 
them to their humanity. Then she pulls 
the Magical Hair from the head of 
Karaz, and transplants it in that of 
Shagpat — him whom she now invites 
Shibli Bagarag to shave. But Goorelka 
has her revenge. By sprinkling dust 
on the petals of the Lily of the En- 
chanted Sea she robs Noorna of her 
beauty transforms her into a miracle 
of ugliness. Such, so far as is neces- 
sary for our purpose, is the outline of 
this amazing story. 

Call, if you like, the Magical Hair 
of Karaz the symbol of a lie; yet its 
might, pemiciousness as lie, lay in its 
truth. Potent lies are never pure lies, 
oftener than not they are pure truths 
gripped in wrong fashion. When^ for 
instance, the egoist grips truth, he turns 
it into falsehood: even the religion of 
"5 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

unselfishness, as grasped by him, min- 
isters to the increase of his selfishness. 
The lie of the Magical Hair is some 
pubtle perversion of truth, fitting so 
admirably into the nature of man, that 
as unmaterialised idea — on the head of 
Karaz — detection is impossible. It 
must be embodied in a fact, allowed to 
■work itself out, unfold its nature in 
alliance with fact, before it can be 
detected. Hence Noorna, representing 
the good power, soon as she gets 
control of the Hair, pulls it from the 
Genie's head, and plants it in that of 
Shagpat. Otherwise put, she plants the 
mighty Hair among the facts, that so 
working itself out, unfolding its nature, 
detection and shaving may follow. The 
immediate result of her action is doubt- 
less to increase the unholy power of 
the Hair. As unrealised idea — unmater- 
ialised lie — it had held a select body 
of visionary fools, occupants of Goor- 
elka's cage, in enchantment. But as 
planted on the head of Shagpat — made 
a visible dignity, a potent institution — 
its power for evil is immeasurably 
greater. Nevertheless in this manner, 
and in no other, can the world 
ii6 



SPECULATION 

ultimately free itself from the enchant- 
m.ent of the Hair. Nothing is discredited 
until it is discredited by experience. 
Slavery, Feudalism, the Divine Right 
of Kings — have not these and many 
other Magical Hairs held men in the 
past in enchantment? And had they 
not to work themselves fully out, reveal 
by abundant interplay with facts the 
falsehood that was in them, before it 
was possible to shave them — banish 
them from among men.? In the w^orld 
of to-day. Magical Hairs, many of them, 
are working themselves out, revealing 
the good or evil which is theirs. Until 
the revelation is complete, it is fated 
that they hold men in enchantment, 
and no power can break the enchant- 
ment. Are there not also mighty Hairs 
rooted still in the head of Genii — no- 
where yet on earth — holding so vision- 
aries in enchantment, making them sing 
the song of enchantment? Never per- 
haps was the world more fruitful in 
unrealised ideas than at present. Genii 
float before its vision carrying mighty 
Hairs, potent, each one of them, with 
the magic of promise; mightiest of 
such being perhaps, for the present, 
117 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

Socialism. If these Hairs are good, 
Noorna, the beneficent one, will trans- 
plant them — bring them to earth — that 
men may rejoice in their goodness. If 
they are bad, she yet in her wisdom 
may transplant them, that men, discern- 
ing their badness, may shave them, rid 
themselves of enchantment. But truly 
good and bad mingle meanings here. 
The good becomes the bad when men 
cleave to it badly. Even a worthy 
custom, when adhered to merely as 
custom, blights the spirit of man. 
Hence it is that: 

"The old order changeth, yielding 
place to new^, 

And God fulfils himself in 
many w^ays, 

Lest one good custom should 

corrupt the world." 

This dream then, if we may still call 

it so, is reason's dream on Providence, 

as manifested in the rise and fall of 

systems and institutions. To enrich 

human consciousness, unfold spirit 

unto itself, is the purpose of Providence 

in history. Hence man is driven 

through all experiences, but permitted 

to rest in none. Truth is reached by 

ii8 



SPECULATION 

him in no other way than by climbing 
to it on the back of error; error there- 
fore has place, relative value in the 
scheme of things. Noorna brings about 
the shaving of Shagpat, yet Noorna 
also it was who planted the Magical 
Hair on Shagpat. Buildings up and 
pullings down are alike of God. 

The interpretation now given will be 
found to fit into, shed light upon most 
of the intricacies of the story. Apply 
it for example to the Ring w^hich gave 
command of the Magical Hair on the 
head of Karaz. In terms of our inter- 
pretation the Ring must be taken to 
mean approximately knowledge. Know- 
ledge is mastery. The power of delu- 
sion lies in that men do n't know it to 
be delusion. Once come to know, and 
the Ring gives them power over the 
Hair. But power only while it remains 
on the head of Karaz. On the head of 
Shagpat it is no longer under but a 
"contradiction to the power of the 
Ring." That is to say, knowledge gives 
mastery over delusion merely as delu- 
sion. But to the extent that delusion 
is materialised, embodied among the 
facts of life, made say a powerful 
119 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

institution, knowledge in itself gives no 
mastery. The Hair of Error then sets 
itself in opposition to, stubbornly bat- 
tles against the Ring of Knowledge. 
When Rome made it her policy to 
suppress such enlightenment as threat- 
ened to endanger her supremacy, when 
she struggled to confine the thought of 
Christendom to grooves prescribed by 
herself — it was the Hair acting in "con- 
tradiction to the power of the Ring." 
And though chosen spirits continually 
brought the Ring of Knowledge to bear 
on that Hair of Error, little practical 
good was effected. The Ring enabled 
them to see the error but not to abolish 
it; gave them mastery over it in the 
abstract — as on the head of Karaz, but 
left them impotent toward it in the 
concrete — as on the head of Shagpat. 
Hence the fallacy — as applicable to 
Rome in her power — of that saying of 
Erasmus: "Spread the light and dark- 
ness will vanish of itself." Translated 
into allegorical language the saying 
meant that since the Ring had power 
over the Hair on the head of Karaz, 
it must also have power over it on the 
head of Shagpat. Or, giving it another 

120 



SPECULATION 

allegorical translation, it meant that 
provided that Shagpat's Hair was lath- 
ered sufficiently, it would by mirac- 
ulous process, and without touch of 
razor, shave itself. It is not so the 
world's errors are abolished. Every- 
thing is to be fought with on its own 
plane of being.What is purely spiritual 
is to be overcome, can indeed be over- 
come, by none save spiritual weapons 
— nought save the Ring can master the 
Hair on the head of Karaz. But when 
a thing is at oi>ce spiritual and material, 
then on both planes of being must 
battle with it be waged. Lathering 
must industriously be attended to, but 
after the lathering must come the 
Sword. 

It is by reference to a change in 
the standards of taste that the loss of 
beauty which befell Noorna through 
Goorelka casting dust on the petals of 
the Lily is to be explained. Beauty is 
in the eye that sees it. What is lovely 
in the eyes of one age or people may 
be loathsome in the eyes of another. 
The case with Noorna simply was that 
as Shagpat brought hairiness into fash- 
ion, she as representing non-hairiness 

121 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

had to go out of fashion. It was she 
who brought the Magical Hair to earth 
— that being the only way by which 
men might ultimately free themselves 
of its magic. But while the magic 
holds, while public taste continues 
vitiated, Noorna must appear ugly. 
She thus, as representing the good 
power, accepts voluntary martyrdom 
for the sake of the world. 'Tis by this 
way of voluntary martyrdom that good- 
ness achieves all its victories ; the cross 
is the universal emblem and method 
of its power. In the Gospel is thus 
found the central truth, which is also 
the central mystery, of the moral uni- 
verse. 

These and other glimpses of pro- 
foundest thought will reward those 
who study this portion of the Allegory 
carefully. Enough has here been said 
by way of general interpretation. 



122 



ILLUSION 



N' EVER is Karaz so dangerous as 
-when he haunts the Enchanted 
Sea in the form of fish. Could 
he be altogether excluded from these 
Waters, kept from infesting and pol- 
luting the imagination of man, small 
damage could he work. But while man 
sails Karaz will swim the Enchanted 
Sea, preying on souls. 

But behold how there may be pro- 
tection from Karaz, the shark that preys 
on souls. Open mouthed comes the 
monster to devour Shibli Bagarag as 
he sails the Sea in the "pearly shell" 
of his noble dream. But Noorna, the 
wise one, hurriedly closes the shell, 
shutting her betrothed up in it, so pro- 
tecting him from evil. For as he de- 
scends into that unholy place — the 
belly of the fish — he hears "outside the 
shell a rushing, gurgling noise, and a 
noise as of shouting multitudes and 
123 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

muffled multitudes, muttering com- 
plaints and yells and querulous cries." 
*T was the echo of the worid in its 
sordidness, the babel-cry of its battlings 
and graspings of greed, the multitud- 
inous noise of life's weary whirl of 
illusions, "sound and fury signifying 
nothing" that Shibli Bagarag heard in 
the belly of the fish. Well for him that 
't was as an echo he heard it, that not 
even in imagination did he join the 
sordid scramble. For this thanks are 
due to Noorna who shut him up in 
the "pearly shell" of his noble thought, 
sheltering him so from baseness. A 
noble thought is the soul's defensive 
armour; encased in it a man may suffer 
bombardment from life's pollutions and 
take no stain. "The whole armour of 
God"— if in the urgency of battle you 
forget its details, take it just as the 
"pearly shell" of a noble thought. Shut 
yourself up in that shell, but not alone, 
for aji academic thought, however 
noble, is poor defence against the Evil 
One. Let Noorna, Duty, be with you 
as companion, and then though in the 
belly of Karaz, you are safe from pol- 
lution. This Allegory is to be placed 
124 



ILLUSION 

alongside that of the Talking Hawk, as 
finely illustrating another aspect of the 
saving power of thought. 

But further danger, from which es- 
cape is not so speedy, awaits Shibli 
Bagarag in the Enchanted Sea. It is 
symbolised by his sojourn in the Realm 
of Rabesqurat. 

In descending from the House Beau- 
tiful to the Valley of Humiliation 
Christian "caught a slip," and in con- 
sequence had to encounter Apollyon in 
the valley. Shibli Bagarag is in similar 
condition. He too has been on the 
heights, had vision of the Ideal — to 
him indeed the House Beautiful — and 
now in getting back to himself, resum- 
ing the prosaic activities of life, he 
too catches a slip. His encounter with 
Rabesqurat is at once the consequence 
and the emblem — the allegorical pres- 
entation — of his slip. It is primarily 
a slip into vain anticipation. In place 
of settling down to the task of realising 
his ideal, he gives way to day-dreams., 
indolent anticipations of its realisation. 
Were it merely a case of looking hope- 
fully forward to the time when Shagpat 
would be shaved, no fault would be his. 
125 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

But it is more than that. It is a case 
of dreamily imagining that the deed is 
actually done, the world showering 
honours on him the doer. Day-dreams 
are romances in w^hich every man is 
his ow^n hero; and, fittingly enough, 
Shibli Bagarag's thoughts seem to have 
been on the glorious condition of him- 
self, scarcely at all on the happy con- 
dition of the world under a shaved 
Shagpat. The case with him thus 
was that in descending from the House 
Beautiful to actual life he breaks his 
journey, dwells for a time in a castle- 
in-the-air. He would be an over-rigid 
moralist who altogether condemned 
castles-in-the-air, for surely these fairy 
habitations may on occasion prove san- 
itoria, places of health and healing for 
the confined and overwrought spirit. 
None the less to linger long in them is 
ever to run great risk. In Shibli Baga- 
rag's case the risk was that he came 
near losing the key of his castle, being 
imprisoned there for life. His day dream 
proved terribly persistent. It clung 
about him, held him in such sweet 
fetters, that he could scarcely break 
away. It was only by using violence 
126 



ILLUSION 

on himself that he at last summoned 
strength to smash the enchanted halls 
of Rabesqurat, and make his escape. 

In direct line of the story Shibli 
Bagarag's sojourn in the realm of 
Rabesqurat thus primarily symbolises 
on his part the revelling in vain antici- 
pation, dreaming his great task into 
completion rather than working to 
make it so. But to stop here would be 
to give the Allegory a misleadingly in- 
adequate interpretation. As general de- 
scription of man's condition of soul 
under indolent dreams, it bears a mean- 
ing not different from, but wider, more 
comprehensive than that now given. 
The enervating, will-weakening effect 
of day-dreams, the manner in which 
they make man blunder among, mis- 
construe the facts of life, is subtly 
portrayed. By the pathway of vain 
anticipation indeed it is that Shibli 
Bagarag enters the realm of Rabes- 
qurat, but, the floodgates of folly once 
open, he is betrayed unto himself, piti- 
lessly buffeted by his own weakness, 
so losing his spiritual treasure, the 
Lily. That notable loss must necess- 
arily be considered, but since to follow 
127 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

other details would involve a lengthy 
study, I can only endeavour suggest- 
ively to cover them by a redescription, 
couched in sufficiently general terms, 
of Shibli Bagarag's condition of soul. 

It may be said to have been a con- 
dition due to that law of reaction which 
affects all human activity. The bow 
unbends. The native indolence of 
human nature asserts itself. Shibli 
Bagarag was weary. That passion for 
reality which had ennobled him, singled 
him out from the crowd, was for the 
time being spent. Why probe con- 
tinually beneath appearances.'* Why 
neglect the present good, struggling 
after far-off ideals ? Were it not better 
to take life as it is, daintily skimming 
the surface of things .-^ 

"Death is the end of life — ah! why 
Should life all labour be 7 

These, be it noted, were not questions 
deliberately put and answered by Shibli 
Bagarag. The realm of Rabesqurat is 
the realm, not of deliberation, but of 
drifting. The reformer allowed Noorna 
to be taken from him, but he did not 
himself put her away. There was no 
abandonment of his ambition, but other 
128 



ILLUSION 

interests — life's pleasures and relaxa- 
tions—intervened for a time between 
him and it. The case with Shibli Bag- 
arag thus merely was that he paused 
"wearied in the greatness of his way." 
The pause might have proved fatal. 
The rudder of his will, hitherto inflex- 
ibly held, being let go, the man began 
to dangerously drift. Indolence, spir- 
itual lethargy, a sleepy shrinking from 
the real, an unwillingness to shatter 
pleasant dreams — that constituted his 
weakness and Rabesqurat's strength. 
"He assisted in beguiling himself." 
"He was as one that slideth down a 
hill and can arrest his descent with a 
foot, yet faileth that free will." Real- 
ities were unrelenting, unflattering, 
thwack-bringing ; wearily, petulantly 
he thrust them aside. Dreams were 
soothing, plastic, tickling to vanity; ah! 
let his soul have holiday — let him drift 
and dream and be at ease. The great 
man had forgotten his greatness ; 
Rabesqurat, Queen of Illusions, be- 
fooled him for a time. 

Whom has not the terrible Queen 
befooled.^ Most men alas, not for a 
time, but for the whole unfruitful 
I2g 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

length of their days linger idling in 
her realm, slaves of illusion, fatally 
yet consentingly befooled. They have 
spells, all of them, similar in kind, if 
not in potency, to Shibli Bagarag's — 
spells sufficient at least to free them 
from the Queen's worst enchantments. 
But though man is strong he is not 
master of his strength. Though he is 
wise he neglects his wisdom. The God 
in him sleeps. Queen Rabesqurat has 
her will. From delusion unto delusion 
mortal man is tossed. Verily his life 
is a "vain show." 

Meredith's aim, in this part of the 
Allegory, is not so much to inform us 
respecting the particular temptations 
which assailed Shibli Bagarag as to 
describe the condition of soul which 
laid him open to temptation at all. 
Nature abhors a vacuum, but Satan 
delights in one. He is the Lord of 
Empty Places. Shibli Bagarag gave 
way to idleness, let his mind be empty, 
and at once Satan was at him with 
his foul magic, befooling him, dozing 
him with illusions, making his senses 
traitors to his soul. It does not appear 
however that the youth abandoned 
130 



ILLUSION 

himself even in thought to any gross- 
tness. For this no thanks to his self- 
control; at the time he was exercising 
none. His better self was dozing unto 
sleep, but happily his fair heredity, his 
wholesome instincts — the self within 
the self — stood his good angel while 
he slept, guarding him from baser evils. 
It was at the worst a case of spiritual 
backsliding, lapsing into worldliness — 
worldly mindedness — with the youth. 
Not even in imagination did he aban- 
don himself to grossness, but the 
shows, the vanities, the pomp and pride 
of life ensnared his heart. 'T was a 
condition in which all his spells were 
deteriorating through lack of use. But 
the noblest is ever the first to suffer, 
the readiest to feel the blight of neg- 
lect. Hence the loss of the Lily. Lest 
my former interpretation should have 
lacked in explicitness let me here state, 
though surely it is sufficiently evident, 
that this Lily, the Ideal, is more than 
an intellectual concept, more than 
Shibli Bagarag's vision of what ought 
to be, of what as reformer he is strug- 
gling to achieve. As rooted in the heart 
it is a very personal matter. Call it if 
131 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

you like "the white flower of a blame- 
less life," purity, goodness, spirituality 

— no one name fully describes it. The 
light granted to the pure in heart is 
what the Light of this Lily accurately 
is, and 't is a light which serves a man 
not only to work by but to live by, at 
once guiding his activities and shining 
in upon himself, flooding his soul with 
joy. This divinest treasure Shibli Bag- 
arag lost as Christian lost his "Roll" 

— with which by the way it may be 
profitably compared — because of his 
"sinful sleep." Were man awake he 
could keep God company even in the 
realm of Rabesqurat; were he alto- 
gether awake indeed it would be no 
realm of Rabesqurat for him. But 
something less than that is desirable. 
It is the part of wisdom to treat Rabes- 
qurat guardedly yet complacently, to 
keep, while passing through her realm, 
defensive grip of one's spells, but not 
to use them for the gratuitous exposure 
of the Queen. The wise man knows 
Rabesqurat to be illusion, but he knows 
also that even as illusion she has mean- 
ing and value. But that is a wisdom 
hard to attain unto. To most men the 

132 



ILLUSION 

realm of Rabesqurat is the realm of 
sleep, forgetfulness. Whether amid the 
austerities of the desert or the gaieties 
of the city, he who sleeps, forgets his 
better-self — his spells — is in slavery to 
Rabesqurat. It is a slavery hard to be 
avoided. So terribly does the outward 
fight against the inward that to yield 
oneself even for a little to the shows 
and witcheries of sense is to be in 
danger of that loss of spiritual vision 
which is slavery. For as the Teacher 
says: 

"Ye that the inner spirit's sight 

would seal 
Nought credit but what outward 

orbs reveal." 
" The soul of Shibli Bagarag was 
blinded by Rabesqurat in the depth of 
the Enchanted Sea," hence the Ideal, 
which is the seeing of the soul, was 
lost. The spiritual in him suffered 
inanition — what was there in that life 
of indolence and vanity to feed the 
spiritual? Yet though Shibli Bagarag 
was rapidly drifting into worldliness., 
for a time, so treacherous is the magic 
of Rabesqurat, he did not know it. It 
was however misery, remorse, the 
133 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

"bosom of darkness" with him when 
he came to himself and found the Lily 
gone. The magic halls of Rabesqurat, 
erstwhile flashing brilliances, were to 
him places of gloom, their lamps 
"swinging lamps without light." While 
that "Master light of all our seeing" 
remained quenched in him, no other 
light might shine. For the Ideal, take 
it in what sense you will, if the enemy, 
is yet the friend of the Real. If it 
shows up the defects of things, it is 
yet that which gives them their mean- 
ing and value. By the light of the Lily 
Shibli Bagarag saw all that was actual 
blemish-marked; without the light of 
the Lily the world was to him wholly 
a place of darkness, its lamps "swing- 
ing lamps without light." 

When vision fails do not stand still, 
but grope. To stand still is to consent 
to darkness; to grope is to petition for 
light. Had Shibli Bagarag at that crisis 
in his career stood still, paralysed with 
despair, he would have been lost. But 
this was a youth that never throughout 
his career was actually imprisoned in 
Doubting Castle. The outward trend 
of his activities, his happy freedom 
134 



ILLUSION 

from ultra introspection, saved him 
from that danger. The moment he 
came to himself Shibli Bagarag — in 
this the type of true repentance — 
began to grope, sadly yet hopefully, 
through the darkened halls of Rabes- 
qurat, using — it was all he could do — 
the lower to guide him to the higher, 
the Water of Paravid to guide him to 
the Lily. When formerly he found 
the Lily it brought him pure joy, but 
this time, because of his backsliding, 
agony mingled with the joy. To get 
it he had to do a terrible thing — pluck 
the heart out of that awesomely lovely 
one, the silver-white, radiance-spread- 
ing damsel. I shall explain briefly what 
seems to be the primary meaning of 
this piercingly beautiful Allegory. 

In regard to sacred things it cannot 
but be that while w^e are working with 
them, putting them to practical use, 
their glory is partly hidden from us. 
It is manifestly well that this should 
be so, for w^ere tools to overawe the 
hand that works with them, they would 
cease to be tools. Viewed therefore 
as touchstone of the actual, pattern for 
remodelling the actual, practical spell 
135 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

of any sort, the Ideal finds its modest 
but fitting emblem in the Lily. But 
should man, after a lapse into disloy- 
alty, make, painful recovery of the Ideal, 
it takes on another and an awesome 
symbolism. No mere model of beauty, 
aesthetic abstraction, is it known to be 
then; a sentient being rather, of holi- 
ness and anguish unspeakable. The 
man feels that his sin has gone beyond 
himself, reached out to the wounding, 
lacerating the heart of the Holy One, 
This it is which constitutes the mys- 
tery and significance of sin, this in- 
stinctive feeling on the part of the 
sinner that his sin has gone beyond 
himself, struck at and wounded the 
heart of Infinite Love. The conscious- 
ness of his wrongdoing as it affected 
himself was to Shibli Bagarag so lost 
sight of, swallowed up in this larger, 
terribler consciousness that his heart's 
cry was the cry of the Psalmist : 
"Against thee, thee only have I sinned, 
and done this evil in thy sight." How- 
ever it be with man's intellect, his 
heart cannot become vocal without 
acknowledging God. Stir his heart into 
prophecy with any profound emotion — 
136 



ILLUSION 

provided it be profound it matters little 
what the emotion — and the prophecy 
is of God. This significant fact is wit- 
nessed to frequently in the Allegory, 
nowhere more remarkably than in the 
passage now explained. 

This noble Allegory of backsliding, 
repentance and restoration ought to 
receive independent study from the 
reader. I have merely given its primary 
meaning, the one most directly in line 
with the story, but so rich is it in the 
magical qualities of Allegory that fresh 
meanings and beauties will reveal 
themselves to every competent seeker. 

It would be wrong to leave the realm 
of Rabesqurat without making acquaint- 
ance of little man Abarak "keeper 
of the Seventh Pillar." More will 
afterwards appear of the Seventh 
Pillar, but take it meantime merely to 
represent the will. Strength, steadfast- 
ness of will, is indeed the seventh, the 
perfect pillar of human nature. Abarak 
^'keeper of the Seventh Pillar" was thus 
a man of great will power, and in that 
lay his strength. Yet his limitations in 
point of intellect made his strength of 
little avail. So lacking was he in the 

137 

J 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

"seeing eye and the understanding 
heart" that he lived enmeshed in the 
toils of Rabesqurat, certain to remain 
so unless some nobler spirit helped 
him to freedom. Shibli Bagarag does 
him this best of services. He opens 
his eyes to the hoUowness of the life 
he is leading, imparts to him — by 
means of the Lily — a saving glimpse 
of nobler things. The little man, rec- 
ognising in the youth a master spirit, 
gives himself up to him in loyal ser- 
vitude; and in such servitude finds his 
true life. 

Beautiful was the relationship thus 
established between these two "brothers 
in adventure." It was a relationship 
based on exchange of spells, mutual 
helpfulness in noble things. Abarak 
toiled for, because he could not see 
through Rabesqurat; Shibli Bagarag 
toyed with, because he did not wish 
to see through her. Abarak imparts 
to Shibli Bagarag his strength, reso- 
luteness—lends him his Bar; Shibli 
Bagarag imparts to Abarak his in- 
sight, spiritual vision — lends him his 
Lily; and so leaning on each other, 
the twain pass on to achievement. 
138 



ILLUSION 

Some things there may be that a wise 
man will not lend to another, but his 
ppells he ought always to lend. He 
iruns no risk of losing them in the 
lending, rather they come back to 
him enriched. God has placed us in 
society in order to establish a great 
Human Stock Exchange — spells being 
the stock exchanged. Happy he who 
transacts much business in this Ex- 
change ; there is service in it, and 't is 
a service "twice blessed, it blesseth 
him that gives and him that takes." 



139 



VANITY 



IT must already be apparent that 
the different regions through which 
Shibli Bagarag travelled were but 
different aspects of one region, human 
life viewed from different points of 
view. Shagpatism represents life in 
its institutional aspect, full of errors, 
superstitions and wrongs. The Quest 
of the Spells represents life in its as- 
piring and disciplinary aspect, a school 
wherein, by much effort and hardship, 
man may learn wisdom. The Realm of 
Rabesqurat represents life in its frivol- 
ous, pleasure-loving, superficial aspect. 
Aklis — the region to which Shibli 
Bagarag now comes — represents life in 
what (may be called its legal aspect, 
using that word not in its institutional, 
but in its cosmic sense. This devil's 
lottery of existence, this chaotic tossing 
and tumbling of things — see it through 
the eye of Aklis and all is order, law, 
141 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

government. "No aid or friendliness 
in Aklis." No chance or injustice in 
Aklis. Here the Unseen Powers keep 
shop. All manner of merchandise, suit- 
ing every taste, is to be got in ex- 
change for spells. But without Spells, 
appointed and of proportionate value, 
nothing is to be got, for the Unseen 
Powers are strict merchantmen, and no 
dispensers of charity. 

Aklis is the realm not of efforts, but 
of results; cursed are they who linger 
in it. At no time can a man, if true 
to his manhood, say "I have done 
enough. I will rest on my laurels, and 
take my reward." Men with a future be- 
fore them pass through Aklis, claiming 
the Sword, the Bar, whatever weapon 
their spells can purchase. Men who 
have outlived their ambition and are 
content with their achievements settle 
down in Aklis, nestle in it, make it 
their home. They are under a curse — 
these last. Past achievements, however 
great, are not a capital, on the repu- 
tation of which, as on interest, a man 
can live honourably idle- To cease seek- 
ing great things is to cease being great. 

To Shibli Bagarag Aklis appeared 
142 



VANITY 

"a strange, dusky land, as it seemed a 
valley, on one side of which was a 

ragged copper sun setting low 

The sky was a brown colour; the earth 
a deeper brown, like the skins of tawny 
lions." Sparkle, brightness, glint of 
living light was there none in Aklis. 
The description is significant. Nothing 
in life is so disenchanting as its results. 
The spirit of hope, which is the spirit 
of poetry, lights with some touch of 
living light earth's dreariest realm of 
effort; but over the realm of results 
there broods dullness, the prosaic spirit. 
A man can be mocked by his failures 
and yet keep in love with life, but woe 
to him who is mocked by his successes. 
Happily it can be said success mocks 
no man until he attempts to rest in it; 
then indeed it deservedly mocks him. 

It is generally by way of the En- 
chanted Sea of anticipation that man 
enters the rich but sombre realm of 
results, and the realm suffers unduly 
by the contrast. Mayhap, however, 
Shibli Bagarag carries with him a phial 
of water from this Enchanted Sea, and 
that on occasion he will pour drops 
from it on the sombre things of Aklis, 
143 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

causing them, not indeed to speak, but 
to glisten, dance and sing. He is a 
likely youth to have such a phial in 
his possession. But for the present he 
has disported himself sufficiently with 
enchantments; 'tis good that for a 
period he should stand clear of them, 
look out on life in practical, prosaic 
mood. 

Consider his experiences in this 
realm. 

Through the Palace of Aklis — the 
mart of the world — he passes, behold- 
ing, estimating its wealth of wares. 
Just here many mighty ones, "brothers 
in adventure" have closed ignomin- 
iously their careers, making fool's 
barter of their hard-won spells. The 
youth's love for Noorna, his native 
cleanliness of spirit, carry him un- 
smirched through life's grosser tempta- 
tions. Neither avarice nor sensual 
pleasures conquer him. Those whom 
they conquer, Meredith, with fine scorn, 
describes as monstrosities, half-human, 
half -bestial in form, not passers through 
but wolfish, swinish settlers in Aklis. 
But Shibli Bagarag's own fall, a hurtful 
one, awaits him in the Hall of the 
144 



VANITY 

Duping Brides. To understand its nature 
be it said that by this time he has at- 
tained unto a certain measure of fame. 
It is known that he has the three 
mighty Spells, and that in consequence 
he is likely to come to great things. 
Men worship the rising sun; and this 
youth, famous and growing in fame, 
has naturally all sorts of people buzz- 
ing about him, flattering him. His fall 
comes through their flatteries, or rather 
through that vanity in him to which 
their flatteries make appeal. And 
here note the prophetic quality of day- 
dreams. In the realm of Rabesqurat — 
imagination — Shibli Bagarag's dreams, 
foolish though they were, had in them 
no taint of grossness. They were 
vanity-inspired dreams, revellings in 
imaginary fame. His actual life proved 
but a replica of his dream-life. The 
first and second temptations in Aklis 
— temptations to grossness — were to 
him scarcely temptations at all. But 
the third temptation, as making appeal 
to his vanity, proved irresistible. "Out 
of the heart are the issues of life." 
The day-dream foreshadows the reality. 
The case with Shibli Bagarag in the 
145 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

Hall of the Duping Brides thus merely 
is that he is entangled in his own weak- 
ness. Sweet to him is this novel but 
long-looked for experience of popular 
applause, yea for the sweetness of it 
he is as one "in the midst of a very 
rose-garden of young beauties, such as 
the Blest behold in Paradise." He feels 
himself one of nature's kings, exalted, 
crowned with fame; for a crown, and 
no less, is what these Brides — symbol- 
ising by their beauty and blandishments 
the sweetness of fame — seem to offer 
him. But the youth is on his guard, 
or tries to be. Thrice already in his 
experience has he been saluted as king, 
and "till now it was a beguilement, all 
emptiness." Therefore though his "head 
itcheth for the symbols of majesty" he 
will first test the honesty of these 
Brides by his two hitherto trustworthy 
tests — the Water of Paravid and the 
Light of the Lily. They blink, water in 
the eyes a little, but — Duping Brides 
though they are — stand the test suffic- 
iently well. Are his spells at fault then 
at last? Why not.-* They are not ob- 
jective things — these spells, but merely 
symbols of the youth's spiritual con- 
146 



VANITY 

dition — his clearness of vision, purity 
of heart; hence they necessarily find 
their limit in contact with what remains 
in him of weakness, especially when, 
as it happens, vanity is his weakness. 
For the nature of vanity is that while 
it reveals itself to all the world, it hides 
itself from its own possessor. When a 
man is vain everybody is likely to 
know it sooner than himself. Shibli 
Bagarag indeed has bruised himself too 
frequently against his own vanity to 
be altogether ignorant of its existence. 
But his knowledge, as being neither 
humble nor watchful, is no better than 
ignorance. He is one to admit that he 
is vain, and to smile vainly at the ad- 
mission. Therefore it is that his spells 
prove at fault here, or rather — putting 
it more correctly — that he proves at 
fault in the application of them. He 
uses them to test the innocence of 
the Brides' blandishments, whereas he 
ought to have used them to test 
whether he could with impunity stand 
their blandishments. The Brides' bland- 
ishments — as symbolising popular ap- 
plause — were not insincere. Crowds 
never flatter. There is always sincerity 
147 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

in the applause of the multitude. 
Shallow, short-lived, and of little 
worth their favor may be, but for the 
moment at least it is genuine. In that 
respect the Water of Paravid did not 
report falsely. On the larger question 
as to the value of fame in itself, it 
could scarcely be expected to report 
impartially. Such report as it gives, 
that is to say such reflections on the 
subject as Shibli Bagarag could attain 
unto, are described with large poetic 
freedom in the charming snatches of 
verse which the Brides are made to 
utter. If you judge from these snatches 
of verse that the impassioned and am- 
bitious youth overestimates the joys of 
fame — the urgency with which it ought 
to be pursued; judge also whether in 
your phlegmatic wisdom you may not 
as likely be underestimating them. But 
indeed Shibli Bagarag faces the whole 
question conscientiously, striving to be 
thorough with himself. It is not only 
the Water of Paravid but the Lily — the 
moral test — he applies to the Brides. 
Can he pursue fame without damage 
to his better self — take joy in it and 
yet be blameless in the sight of God.'* 
148 



VANITY 

Allowing that the question was too 
personal to be debated altogether im- 
partially, that some measure of the 
inevitable prejudice in favour of self 
must have broken in upon his deliber- 
ations, can it be said that he came to 
a wrong conclusion? Surely it is not 
sin to take pleasure in the approval of 
one's fellows; were one indeed not to 
do so would it not but argue in him 
the lack of healthy social instincts? To 
stoop to unworthiness through greed 
of popularity is indeed great sin; but 
when fame and favour come in the 
pursuit of duty a man does well to 
rejoice in them, to count them among 
his legitimate rewards. Shibli Bagarag's 
decision was right. The Brides stand 
the test of the Lily, if not indeed per- 
fectly, as well at least as most earthly 
pleasures. For all that they proved 
but Duping Brides, working shame and 
danger to Shibli Bagarag. See now the 
nature of their Duping. 

The desire for applause acts as an 
incentive ; applause itself when it 
comes, tends to act as a soporific. 
Shibli Bagarag drinks at the cup of his 
own fame, and the potion sends him 
149 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

to sleep. His better self, his heroic 
self is sound asleep, but to be sure his 
vanity-tickled, vain-glorious self is de- 
lightedly awake. Because he is the 
man of the hour — feted, lionised, wor- 
shipped of the multitude — he jumps to 
the conclusion that his dreams of great- 
ness have come true at last. But they 
have not come true; they are simply 
being duplicated. Shibli Bagarag is 
still dreaming; never a sillier, more 
hurtful dream has he had than this. 
For, and this is the Duping, by fancy- 
ing himself great he is cheating him- 
self of greatness. No longer intent on 
achieving but on enjoying, no longer 
struggling to Master an Event, but 
revelling in that popularity which he 
imagines is the proof and the reward 
of Mastery — is he not now among 
those base ones who settle down in 
Aklis, make it their home .-* His career 
is at a standstill. In relation to his life- 
mission he is represented in the Alle- 
gory — and note the truth rather than 
the irony of the symbolism — as a be- 
numbed and pathetic figure, sitting on 
a throne from which he could not 
move. Clearly Shibli Bagarag is not 
150 



VANITY 

strong enough to stand the Brides' 
blandishments. As cheer, encourage- 
ment in his work, could he take them 
so, they would do him good and not 
harm. But he cannot take them so. 
The breath of popular applause has 
fanned his vanity into a mighty flame, 
and in that flame his whole manhood 
threatens to be consumed. Alas for the 
erstwhile strenuous youth that his head 
should be turned, his time wasted in 
this silliest fashion. One's first loving 
wish is that a shower of lusty thwacks, 
thwacks of the old stinging quality, 
could once again be apportioned him. 
But what good would they be likely 
to do ? Vanity, when grown great, feeds 
and flourishes on all things. If applause 
is what fattens it, reproach and hisses 
are what strengthen it, give it muscle. 
Had it been possible for the world to 
thwack Shibli Bagarag into humility, 
verily by this time he had been humble. 
But for this more searching thwacks 
than the world's are required, and, 
praise the Disposer of Destinies! the 
administering of them at last begins. 
As Shibli Bagarag sat on that benumb- 
ing throne "his gaze fell on a mirror, 
151 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

and he beheld the crown on his fore- 
head what it was, bejewelled asses' ears, 
stiffened upright, and the skulls of 
monkeys grinning with gems. The 
sight of that crowning his head con- 
vulsed Shibli Bagarag with laughter, 
and as he laughed his seat upon the 
throne was loosened, and he pitched 
from it." The mirror in which Shibli 
Bagarag thus saw himself was the 
mirror of self-consciousness; his laugh- 
ter the bitter laughter of self-criticism. 
Of all the furniture of the human 
spirit count this mirror among the most 
precious, for truly its qualities of won- 
der are inexhaustible. Morbidity comes 
to him who looks at it too much; folly 
accumulates on him who looks at 
it too little; wisdom would be his who 
looked at it aright. It is a mirror to 
liberate all whom it makes laugh. 
Laughter is the emotion of reason, the 
channel by which, under shock of 
surprise, reason relieves its feelings. 
When it is a man's self that gives his 
reason a surprise, the pealing of his 
laughter is but the screaming of his 
self-love under the lash. Thwackings 
of this nature bring liberation to the 
152 



VANITY 

soul. The man who cannot laugh at 
himself is in bondage to himself. The 
man who cannot see over his own 
shoulder will never grow taller. Self- 
criticism is the chief saving grace of 
life; that it lose not this dignity see 
that it be practised in no pettifogging 
spirit. A morbid martinet of a con- 
science is sore company, and the grace 
of God is not in it. A wise man for- 
gives himself much. 

Shibli Bagarag's first touch of hu- 
mility comes through the teachings of 
prosperity. While the world thwacked 
him his soul hardened itself in pride; 
now that it smiles on him, he has a 
saving glimpse of his own unworthi- 
ness. He, forsooth, fancying himself 
one of nature's kings, laying himself 
out with fine air of majesty to collect 
the homage of men! The dream — 
'twas the silliest of dreams —vanishes in 
agonies of liberating laughter. Shibli 
Bagarag is again merely a candidate, 
be sure a much humbled candidate for 
greatness. His gain from his folly, his 
sinful waste of time, is that his vanity 
has at last made him appear ridiculous 
in his own eyes, that now therefore 
153 

K 



THE SWAY OF RABESQURAT 

for the first time he sets himself against 
it, knows it to be his enemy. 

None the less he cannot purge his 
heart of vanity. The laughter of self- 
criticism has indeed driven him to 
break free, for the time being, from the 
entanglements of popular applause, but 
it has not killed in him the craving for 
applause. He resumes the strenuous 
life — gets off the throne, but he cannot 
eradicate vanity from his heart — re- 
move the ass-eared crown. That crown 
"stuck to him, and was tenacious of its 
hold as a lion that pounceth upon a 
victim." The prospect is alarming. A 
jreformer must indeed be sensitive to 
public opinion, since that in the last 
issue is the weapon by which he ac- 
complishes his reform. But his sensi- 
tivity must be of an impersonal nature, 
no touch of vanity in it. Every popular 
reformer must count on, be prepared 
to face unpopularity. But here is Shibli 
Bagarag setting about the work of 
reform with a crown of "bejewelled 
asses' ears, stiffened upright" on his 
head. The prospect is certainly alarm- 
ing. In spite of himself he will be 
listening, straining these asses' ears 
154 



VANITY 

of his to catch this man's flatteries,, 
that man's abuse — delighted by the 
one, irritated by the other, influenced 
by all — till steadiness and the cunning 
of barbercraft forsake his wrist. If 
Shibli Bagarag cannot get rid of his 
crown, he had better put down his 
razor, for 't is certain he w^ill make a 
botch of the shave. But patience, for 
much has already been accomplished. 
The youth has seen, caught one saving 
glimpse of himself in the mirror of self- 
consciousness, and the result already 
is that the vain one is up in arms 
against his own vanity, the crowned 
one tugging indignantly at his crown in 
effort to tear it off. To man in this con- 
dition God's grace is ever available. 



155 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 



PURGATION 



AKLIS, as being the realm of re- 
sults, necessarily has its spiritual 
region, for results may be spiritual 
as well as material. Few men directly 
seek spiritual results, but to some 
extent all men find them, for the by- 
products of human activity continually 
tend to be spiritual. Yet to find such 
results in soul saving measure con- 
scious seeking is necessary. Shibli 
Bagarag does well therefore in that 
having discovered the unsatisfying 
nature of the world's rewards, its plea- 
sures and applause, he aspires to enter 
the spiritual region of Aklis, in search 
of true treasure. 

Spiritual rewards are ultimate rewards 
— he who truly finds them knows them 
to be so. None the less to settle con- 
tentedly down, make one's home in 
even this region of Aklis, is capital 
offence. Spirituality divorced from 
159 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

constant aspiration is a contradiction in 
terms. God is the foe of finality. The 
moment a man thinks he has attained 
the goal, he is cast back to restart the 
journey. Spiritual results give way 
under the man who would rest on 
them. A special curse therefore is on 
those who loiter, think to settle down 
in this region of Aklis. It is the region 
of divine discontent, and men must 
enter it seeking not lodgment and Nir- 
vanic ease, but the Sword. 

Shibli Bagarag reached this spiritual 
region by crossing an Abyss on a 
bridge of Roc's eggs. Of the Roc, 
dread inhabiter of the Abyss, we are 
told that it "threatened mankind with 
ruin," that Aklis, the Father, "subdued 
it with his Sword" and that a stain of 
its "blood is yet on the hilt of the 
Sword." If the Abyss be taken to 
represent the heart of man, and the Roc 
to represent sin, or rather that evil prin- 
ciple in man which is the source of 
sin, the Allegory will reveal its mean- 
ing, and in doing so link itself, not for 
the first time, distinctively on to Christ- 
ian teaching. Aklis, the Divine One, 
subduing the Roc of the Abyss — that 
1 60 



PURGATION 

"evil heart of unbelief"— what can it 
symbolise, if indeed it has any definite 
symbolism, but the redeeming labours 
of Christ, recognition that "God was 
in Christ reconciling the world unto 
himself" ? 

On this interpretation the bridge of 
Roc's eggs must be taken to represent 
sins. Sins are the only eggs that evil 
bird lays. Notice however they were 
empty eggs — mere shells; how other- 
wise could Shibli Bagarag have passed 
through them to the Heavenly Powers? 
A full egg would have meant a living 
sin, a sin indulged in and unrenounced; 
one such would have been barrier in- 
deed. But these hollow eggs were dead 
sins, sins Shibli Bagarag had cast or 
was struggling to cast behind him. 
Therefore since "Men may rise on 
stepping stones of their dead selves to 
higher things," it was through the 
empty eggs of the Roc of the Abyss — 
literally his dead self — that Shibli Bag- 
arag came into the Presence. As a de- 
scription of the nature of repentance, 
the method of moral growth, this Al- 
legory grips truth closely and in richly 
suggestive fashion. I have here given 
i6i 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

merely its general meaning; it will 
repay those who study it in detail. 

By the pathway of repentance Shibli 
Bagarag passes into the presence of the 
Sons of Aklis, the Heavenly Powers. 
As symbolical characters these Sons of 
Aklis must be taken to represent God's 
dealings, his grace and government in 
relation to men. But Meredith's sym- 
bolical characters, though never other 
than symbolical, are yet living beings, 
pulsating with concrete life, playing 
their part in story as well as allegory. 
Call these Sons of Aklis, if you like, 
simply the Heavenly Powers, under- 
standing that term in the sense now 
given. 

Shibli Bagarag enters their presence 
in penitential mood, renouncing, so far 
as in him lies, all sin. Could he by 
mere effort of will cleanse his soul, 
surely now there would be cleansing. 
But in the remaking of a man, while 
everything depends on, nothing seems 
actually done by the will. That ass- 
eared crown — grotesque yet truthful 
symbol of his greed of flatteries — still 
sticks to Shibli Bagarag's head; and 
neither can he remove it, nor while it 
162 



PURGATION 

remains can he hope modestly to gov- 
ern the ears thereof that they sniff not 
in applause, tingle with the joy of it. 
His will is awakened, it is strenuous, 
it is doing all that will can do; but it 
cannot reach dow^n into his heart to 
eradicate therefrom the greed of flatter- 
ies. Yet eradicated the greed must be, 
not only because in practical life it 
would inevitably betray him into much 
folly, but because in its own nature it 
is peculiarly offensive to the Heavenly 
Powers. Vanity vitiates virtue. Humility 
is the court-dress of Heaven; virtues 
which are not "clothed in humility" 
are forbidden the presence of the King. 
Shibli Bagarag in a sense is humble 
enough; the glimpse he caught of him- 
self in the mirror of self-consciousness 
has sufftced for that. But when a vain 
man puts on the garment of humility, 
the danger is that he will take to ad- 
miring the garment. That he fall not 
into this danger — become proud of his 
humility — let the youth now keep very 
near the Heavenly Powers. In them 
alone lies his safety. 

The Heavenly Powers do not intrude 
on the soul of man. Even when 
163 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

working with him they keep their hands 
off him; even when saving him they 
preserve in him the consciousness that 
he is working out his own salvation. 
Hence the Sons of Aklis can ,deUver 
Shibli Bagarag in no other way than by 
subjecting him to a process of moral 
and spiritual discipline. Let it not be 
thought that the method of their dis- 
cipline — making the youth, as crowned 
King of Apes, bear the sickening burden 
of his crown — is out of place here. Like 
all regions of the Allegory, this exalted 
region is none other than the real 
world; its exaltation consisting in its 
being the real world as seen by the 
spiritual man, and as furthering by its 
disciplines the purification of spirit. It 
is not always fine experiences that min- 
ister to refinement. To acquire a 
cleansing disgust at filth man may 
sometimes require to have his nose 
rubbed in it. The Heavenly Powers 
are not dainty in their methods of dis- 
cipline, would not need to be when it 
is man they are disciplining. It is 
no incongruity then that though in 
their presence and under their tuition, 
Shibli Bagarag should have sickening 
164 



PURGATION 

experiences with that ignoble rabble, 
the crowd of men-apes. Through such 
experience his cleansing is to come. 

As mere satire, however biting, no 
objection need be taken to the rep- 
resentation of human beings as a 
rabble of apes, their affairs comparable 
for unimportance to the meaningless 
squabbles of apes. But in this connec- 
tion it is not mere satire. It is designed 
to indicate Shibli Bagarag's attitude 
towards his fellow men, the attitude 
approved of by the Heavenly Powers. 
None the less it must be pronounced 
a wrong attitude. Contempt is a lesson 
taught jiot in God's school but in 
Satan's. To despise your fellow-men 
is to prove yourself their inferior. It 
is not engaging in petty affairs that 
makes you petty. It is standing super- 
ciliously aloof from such affairs, or, if 
engaging in them, engaging in a petty 
spirit, that makes you petty. Still in 
the Allegory matters could not prop- 
erly have been represented otherwise. 
The representation is justified by its 
dramatic truthfulness, its psychological 
inevitability. Feelings which are strong 
enough to have cleansing power are 
165 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

never altogether -well balanced. Man 
is in dominion to extremes, works out 
his salvation by means of extremes. As 
reaction from his former excessive de- 
light in the buzzings and flatteries of 
men it is natural, for the moment right, 
that Shibli Bagarag should experience 
loathing. As to the naturalness of it 
there can be no question, for no re- 
lationship that can exist between men 
is so prolific in the seeds of ultimate 
contempt as the relationship of flattery. 
Even in regard to the honest applause 
of one's fellows, while it is good in 
the mass and at a distance, yet some- 
how to come close to it, reap it in 
detail, is ever to a noble spirit ignominy 
and weariness. This is Shibli Baga- 
rag's experience. As popular favourite, 
crowned King of Apes, he is made to 
feel the burden of his crown. At all 
sorts of gatherings his presence, and 
on all sorts of matters his opinion, is 
in request. Once he rejoiced in this 
popularity, counted it greatness, but 
now that his ambition is rekindled, that 
he has risen from his benumbing 
throne, he counts it weariness, sicken- 
ing waste of time. Also he perceives, 
i66 



PURGATION 

since coming to close quarters with 
them, the worthlessness of his flatterers. 
They praise him, but do n't appreciate 
him; hail him as great, and would yet 
drag him down, have him prostitute his 
talents to the nothings of the hour. 
Pah! they are apes, not men; his gorge 
rises at them. These thoughts and 
feelings, nothing else, are what are 
symbolised by the Gall of the Roc^ 
through touch of which deliverance 
comes. The Gall is the bitterness of 
sin, more accurately perhaps, in Shibli 
Bagarag's case, the disgust at sin. Ac- 
cording to the Allegory, when tasted^ 
as by the men-apes, the Gall works 
evil; when merely touched, as by Shibli 
Bagarag, it works good. The distinc- 
tion is important. It is good to know- 
that "the wages of sin is death," but 
the knowledge, if too thorough, itself 
means death. Man may sin himself out 
of the sweets of sin, but never out of 
the love of sin. To drink the cup of 
pleasure to the dregs, so tasting its sedi- 
mentary bitterness is a sure way to 
bring about not repentance but pessim- 
ism in its most unholy form. Creatures 
whom Satan has thus sucked dry, 
167 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

become eager impotences, nests of un- 
holy memories. Cynicism, chief among 
the secondary symptoms of this unwor- 
thiest pessimism, settles on them. They 
become keen but unclean critics of 
life, bubbling over with Byronic bitter- 
ness. But poisons when rightly applied 
have generally medicinal virtues. A 
taste of the Gall of the Roc kills; a 
touch of it may make alive. Notice, 
for it is very important, that in Shibli 
Bagarag's case disgust at sin was the 
result rather than the inspirer of repent- 
ance. The inward reaction had com- 
menced, he had set himself against the 
love of, before he acquired the distaste 
for flatteries. It was not the Gall which 
brought repentance; it was repentance 
which brought the Gall. This indeed 
is how most accurately to distinguish 
between the touch and the taste of the 
Gall. When man by repentance in- 
vites the Gall to come, it merely 
touches him to the cleansing of his 
soul. But when it comes without invi- 
tation, forces itself — as always soon or 
late it does — on the unwilling and un- 
repentant sinner, the sinner is made 
taste it, and the taste is death. It was 
i68 



PURGATION 

therefore because Shibli Bagarag wel- 
comed the Gall, commissioned the men- 
apes to bring it to him, that at its touch 
the ass-eared crown fell from his head. 
He thus obtains deliverance from his 
besetting sin of vanity, first intellectually 
by self-criticism — symbolised by his 
liberating laughter on the throne ; 
second spiritually by rooting the love 
of flattery from his heart — symbolised 
by the touch of the Gall. Otherwise 
put, his will rises in arms against his 
vanity, and, for such is the operation of 
of grace, the heart follows the will, to 
the rooting out of vanity. 

The feastings and festivities of Shibli 
Bagarag with the Sons of Aklis, in par- 
ticular that feasting under the branches 
of the miraculous fruit tree, clearly 
symbolise the spiritual nourishments 
and refreshments which came from his 
communion, wrestling, with the Heav- 
enly Powers. Here Shibli Bagarag is 
lifted above objective experience. God 
touches him, not through the medium 
of such experience, but directly, spirit 
with spirit. Man's noblest prerogative 
is this power to withdraw himself from 
the world, to enter as free spirit into the 
169 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

presence chamber of the Father Spirit. 
It is thus he becomes equipped for high 
enterprise. The human spirit is nour- 
ished, kept in strength and cheer, by 
the Divine. But while all are made free 
of the common bounty, a special table, 
stored with royal nutriment, is reserved 
for the seekers, the wrestlers, who as 
princes prevail with God, Shibli Bag- 
arag is of the number. He sits under 
the branches of the miraculous fruit 
tree, eating the fruit thereof. 

By these disciplines and nourish- 
ments it is that he is fortified for the 
demand now to be made on him, even 
that renunciation w^hich is the price of 
the Sword. His surrender of the Spells 
to Gulrevez, as symbolising the con- 
summation of his long training, is of 
special importance. Notice these points 
with respect to Gulrevez. First — In her 
form of Antelope it was no easy task 
catching her. Much pursuit was re- 
quired, "a hawk being let loose to 
worry and distress her timid, beaming 
eyes." Second — She was the one, alone 
permitted, to hold speech with Aklis, 
the Father, behind the Veil. Third — 
After Shibli Bagarag had surrendered 
170 



PURGATION 

the Spells to her she resumed her 
proper shape, which was that of a 
damsel "a vision of loveliness with 
queenly brows." Truth will gleam from 
these statements if we take Gulrevez 
to represent that spirit of self-renujj- 
ciation to which, to be a chosen soldifer 
of the Lord, Shibli Bagarag had now to 
attain. That is a spirit which comes to 
no man naturally and without effort. 
It must, like Gulrevez, be hunted after, 
captured at the cost of struggle and 
pain. And it is the condition of soul 
necessary for communion with God. 
"When man truly prays, it is the Gul- 
revez in him that prays. None but she 
can go behind the Veil to speak to 
Aklis. And as for the change of form 
which she took after the surrender of 
the Spells, is it not happily true that 
every act of self-denial appears beauti- 
ful in retrospect.^ The resolution ta 
perform such an act eludes us, flies, 
before us like an Antelope. We must 
use violence, worry and distress our- 
selves, to come by it. But once the 
surrender has been made, our soul is 
aglow with the sweetness and beauty 
of it. The Antelope becomes a damsel 
171 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

"a vision of loveliness with queenly 
brow^s." 

Only one of the three hairs from the 
tail of the horse Garraveen was Shibli 
Bagarag called on to surrender to Gul- 
revez. Which enthusiasm did that lost 
hair represent? Not surely the Musk- 
ball enthusiasm, for the natural joy 
man has in his work is entirely com- 
patible with the spirit of self -surrender. 
Genius is not robbed of itself when 
given up to the service of God. Still 
less could it have been the Sign of the 
Crescent enthusiasm, for that as being 
a drudge's enthusiasm is not only com- 
patible with but the inevitable concomi- 
tant of self-surrender. Gulrevez would 
not deprive Shibli Bagarag of that 
mighty Hair, rather she would touch it 
with her divine fingers as it circled the 
w^rist of the youth, increasing so its 
potency, endowing it with gleams of 
livelier light. The Call of Battle enthus- 
iasm, "the sapphire hair that conquered 
the lion" was what Shibli Bagarag had 
to part with. It could have been no 
other, need not even have been this 
but that he was "tempted by the third 
temptation in Aklis, and left not the 
172 



PURGATION 

Hall in triumph, the Hall of the Duping 
Brides." A man may conceivably be 
a selfless man, entirely surrendered to 
God, though in action he manifests 
that heat of blood, gaudium certaminis, 
which the Call of Battle enthusiasm is. 
But to a man of Shibli Bagarag's tem- 
perament the thing was impossible. The 
battle fervour would be certain to stir 
up self-love, set flame to vanity in his 
heart. Therefore to become a selfless 
man his selfhood had not only to be 
surrendered, it had to be emasculated. 
His weakness was so entwined round 
his strength that in pulling up the one 
the other had to suffer damage. To 
human nature in its progress toward 
the divine it must often happen so. Men 
under discipline of the spirit cannot 
always front the world with that ap- 
pearance of strength which belongs to 
those who live full-based on their 
natural instincts. They are in the 
remaking and exhibit some of that 
instability inevitable to the process. 
Surely Shibli Bagarag's discipline 
under the Heavenly Powers w^as a 
terrible one when it led to the up- 
rooting, casting from him, one of the 
173 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

most deeply seated instincts of his 
nature. 

Surrender is the last word God has 
to say to man. All spiritual training 
in its beginning is a seeking, in its com- 
pletion a surrendering. God beggars us 
to enrich us. He takes our all that 
in return He may give us His all. There 
^vould have been something conspic- 
uously lacking in the Allegory, we 
would have missed in it the secret of 
Christ, had S^ibli Bagarag's strenuous 
seeking not been made to end in sur- 
render. Is it not partly at least patent 
to reason that surrender is the neces- 
sary condition of strength ? A man 
cannot do great things from small mot- 
ives. He cannot Master an Event for 
the personal glory of the achievement. 
If he thinks to fight God's battle to 
advertise his own prowess, it is not 
God's battle he is fighting, for "Allah's 
the cause with no fleck of self stained." 
Masters of Events, saviours of the 
world, have necessarily escaped from 
cramping and betraying personal mot- 
ives. They are men who resolutely 
sacrifice themselves, and who hold the 
Sword at the price of sacrifice. By 
174 



PURGATION 

finally abandoned self - seeking, by 
sinking himself and all that he had 
in his cause, Shibli Bagarag became 
a mighty and a consecrated power. 
The Sword of the Lord was in his 
hands. 



175 



EQUIPMENT 



THE Sword, the emblem of the 
power by which Shibli Bagarag 
is to accomplish his Reformation, 
bears two meanings. These meanings, 
as being alike legitimate, w^ould be 
found, on full analysis, to largely re- 
solve themselves into each other. Still 
they are sufficiently distinct to call for 
separate notice. 

Two factors, the personal and the 
impersonal, go to the making of every 
achievement. The Master of the Event 
and the Spirit of the Age alike contri- 
bute a share. No man, how^ever quali- 
fied by spells, can be a reformer unless 
he finds ready to his hands social forces 
which make for reform. Had Luther 
been born a century earlier he could 
never have succeeded in breaking the 
power of Rome — the Sword for the 
Mastery of that Event not having then 
been sharpened. The Sword may be 
177 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

taken to represent the impersonal factor 
in man's work, that which he gets given 
him by his time. The Sons of Aklis, 
sharpeners of the Sword, would thus 
personify the Time-Spirit, the sum total 
of those forces w^hich are ever at work 
in society ripening things for change. 
Yet since God achieves his purpose 
through the Time-Spirit, the Sons of 
Aklis cease not, even in this connec- 
tion to be the Heavenly Powers — per- 
sonifications of the Providence of God 
in relation to men. The Allegory is 
entirely catholic. The reformer needs 
to have given him his w^eapons; so does 
the scientist, the artist, the worker of 
every kind. Suitable materials and con- 
ditions must be supplied by the Time- 
Spirit; otherwise, no matter for his 
spells, man can accomplish but little. 
The Sword, the emblem of destruc- 
tion, is especially apt as a description 
of the reformer's tools. His w^ork is 
to build up indeed, but it is firstly and 
chiefly to cut down. Something else 
v/ould doubtless have to be substituted 
for Shagpatism, but meantime the 
matter in hand "was destruction. The 
w^orld is saved by change. A noble 
178 



EQUIPMENT 

inconsistency runs through the ages. 
Men serve God to-day by building; 
they serve him to-morrow by demolish- 
ing -what is built. Nature is ever at 
war. Her peace is but the antagonising 
of equal forces. Her stillness is but 
the stillness of sense-baffling motion. 
The world is saved by change, and 
Shagpat's hour has come. He has out- 
lived his usefulness; is now indeed a 
mere corruption, a dead thing and the 
spreader of death. Expeditious burial 
is what he requires; but the world's 
Shagpats can never have expeditious 
burial owing to the vested interest cer- 
tain people have in their corpse. Shag- 
pat cannot even be granted * a death- 
certificate; the Lords of Vested Inte- 
rest—honourable hoaxers all— swearing 
on soul and conscience that he is still 
alive, serving his day and generation 
nobly as ever. But God gets weary 
of lies. This dead thing — fronting the 
living, feigning the wholesome offices 
of life — has to be removed. Perhaps 
had he consented in time to moderate 
reform, say to that friendly, conserva- 
tive shave Shibli Bagarag once pro- 
posed for him, his day of grace might 
179 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

not yet be over. But Shagpat scorned 
the art of timely concession, no hair in 
all his head would Shagpat consent to 
part with. There he stands, fronting 
the light of day, an overgrown evil, a 
tangled w^ilderness of hairiness — un- 
taught, unteachable, sublime in stupid- 
ity! His day of grace is past. No friendly, 
conservative shave for Shagpat now. It 
is the Sword of Aklis Shibli Bagarag 
carries. 

Transcendental wisdom proclaims 
Pre-established Harmony, clockwork 
Providence, the moment bringing the 
man. But is there ever a time when 
God is not urgently advertising for a 
man to "rid the world of nuisances," 
constant employment and good wages 
— mainly in thwacks — being guaran- 
teed? Suitable candidates may come 
too late, but not surely too soon. For 
were a Shibli Bagarag to present him- 
self in Aklis, demanding the Sword 
before it was sharpened, he would 
simply be set to sharpen it — very hon- 
ourable employment indeed. True, in 
that case he would not be the Master 
of an Event, but merely the forerunner; 
but some of the world's best men have 
1 80 



EQUIPMENT 

been such. Peace notwithstanding to 
Pre-established Harmony and all trans- 
cendental wisdom. Destiny keeps trust 
with Shibli Bagarag in most honourable 
fashion. The Sword is ready, and into 
no hands but his can it be given. Every 
great movement tends to focus itself 
in, and to accomplish itself through one 
individual. The history of the world is 
the history of its great men. Fate in- 
deed uses the many to put might and 
keenness into the blade, but when it is 
fit for service she entrusts it into the 
hands of one. 

This last thought suggests the other 
meaning of the Sword. Though coming 
second in point of exposition, it must 
be considered the primary meaning, the 
one Meredith had mainly though not 
exclusively in view. I w^ill state it 
briefly. 

Where there is no reformer, ripeness 
for reform passes into rottenness, death 
itself thus becoming reformer. For 
though in the spirit of man there is 
inexhaustible recuperative power, it is 
a power which, speaking of men in the 
mass, seems incapable of awakening 
into spontaneous activity. Though the 
i8i 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

world is never past mending, it is yet 
never able to mend itself. A physician, 
a reformer is required. God deals in 
go-betweens. He speaks to one man, 
and through that one man to the age. 
The place of a leader — a true leader — 
is thus supremely great. In regard only 
to official Kingship is the Divine Right 
of Kings an exploded doctrine. Of that 
other Kingship which resides not in 
office but in personality it is an eter- 
nally true doctrine. Men of richly com- 
manding personality breathe out upon 
their age the greatness of their own 
spirit. Their power is not something 
they derive from, but something they 
impart to, the world. In themselves, 
the daemonic resources of their own 
nature, resides their power. Such men 
— the w^orld has had many of them — 
are themselves to be called Swords. In 
most cases Sword is the word which 
literally describes them. Great epochs 
of history are marked, made rather, by 
the apparition of colossal men — storm- 
centres, fountains of battle — whose 
destiny for good or evil it is never to 
enjoy peace, never while they live to 
let the world enjoy it. Like living 
182 



EQUIPMENT 

Swords they flash continual war, and 
truly their swords are miraculous weap- 
ons, drawn from the armoury of their 
own spirits. It is not only or chiefly 
of professional soldiers, men like Napo- 
leon, that this is true, for indeed of 
quite another class of men it is far 
more profoundly true. Not they who 
deal in gunpowder, but they who deal 
in ideas are the real storm-centres of 
the world. Ideas alone are mighty; in 
them lie the dynamite to destroy and 
the power to recreate the things of 
men. Hence it was that the Prince of 
Peace could declare that he came "not 
to send peace but a sw^ord." And truly 
a sword he did send. Napoleon's 
sword perished and sunk to quiet rest 
with himself, but the Sword of Christ 
is still at its mighty work, passing from 
hand to hand and from age to age, and 
no man can say unto it "Peace, be still." 
Not by the world, nor of the things of 
the world, are swords of this temper 
fashioned. "From worlds not quick- 
ened by the sun," even from that region 
where men commune with the Sons of 
Aklis, and make surrender to Gulrevez, 
do such swords come. God's Swords 
183 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

are men, spirits breathed upon by His 
Spirit. They come forth armed with 
His inspirations, bringing with them 
new ideas, new hopes, new outlooks 
for men; imparting to them some 
energy of life, outbreathing of creative 
force, for the rebirth of the world. 
This was the case with Shibli Bagarag. 
His Sword was himself — what else 
could it have been? Man is his own 
treasure house. The Kingdom of God, 
all resources of abiding wealth and 
strength, are within him. He must be- 
come what he would get, so only can 
he truly get. None the less blame not 
man that his energies are mainly di- 
rected outward, for it is so that, in 
terms of his nature, he comes into pos- 
session of the inward. God traps man 
into nobility, lets him like Saul go far 
afield in search of asses, that in the 
height of the search he may burst upon 
him with the vision of a kingdom. All 
earnest seekers are in the way of grace; 
the idlers, the dilettanti only miss life's 
lesson and life's blessing. But notice 
again, for it is all important, how it was 
that Shibli Bagarag became the Sword. 
It was not purely in virtue of his Spells 
184 



EQUIPMENT 

— his splendid moral and intellectual 
qualities. These necessarily counted 
for much, gave him no small influence 
over his fellows. But something was 
required to convert Shibli Bagarag, the 
Spell-bearer into that immeasurably 
mightier being, Shibli Bagarag the 
Sword-bearer. It was renunciation. 
Renunciation wrought in him the div- 
inest, mightiest of miracles. At touch 
of it the man arose transfigured, no 
longer merely a much-talented man, 
but a living Sword, of keenness to ex- 
ecute the purposes of the Lord. The 
world possesses no truer, mightier Alle- 
gory than this. 

Everything in connection with the 
Sword and the getting thereof is sig- 
nificant, but I need refer only to these 
further points. 

Shibli Bagarag had to face a mighty 
lion, thrust his hand into a fiery fur- 
nace, before he w^as permitted to grasp 
the Sword. The Sword itself was a 
thing of terror; its hilt "two large live 
serpents," venomous ones, promising^ 
death to him who grasped it. Also it 
was so large, "full a mile long," it 
seamed madness for man to attempt 
185 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

to move it. Shibli Bagarag was thus 
involved in destructions and sheer im- 
possibilities. He saw no way out of 
them, nor — and this is the point — did 
he ask to see any. He simply dared. 
Always he thought to go forward 
meant destruction, and always he "con- 
cealed his thought" and went forward. 
Always he thought the thing he had 
to do was impossible, and always he 
"concealed his thought" and did it. The 
teaching is excellent. No man will go 
far who puts his foot no further for- 
ward than he sees his way to draw it 
back. He must count on no drawing 
back, make no provision for drawing 
back, only so can he go truly forward. 
Certainly if he aspires to power — to 
wield the Sword of Aklis — he must 
dare and dare and evermore dare, for 
the moment he falters the Sword will 
fall from his grasp. This is not to be 
counted recklessness. Recklessness is 
that which is opposed to caution, but 
daring is that which is above caution. 
Daring is a great virtue, but only so 
when exercised on great matters; on 
other matters the virtue of caution is 
better. When, at the bidding of Gul- 
i86 



EQUIPMENT 

revez, man acts in disregard of conse- 
quences, it is daring; but at other bidd- 
ing, it is recklessness. Hence we are 
told that when Shibli Bagarag feared 
to thrust his hand into the furnace at 
the command of the Sons of Aklis, it 
was Gulrevez who whispered in his ear 
"Do their bidding and be not backward. 
In Aklis fear is ruin and hesitation a 
destroyer." 

As has been said the beauty of 
Gulrevez signifies the sweetness, the 
subtle delight which self-renunciation 
brings. To luxuriate in that sweet- 
ness, linger in self-gratulation over the 
thought of one's own nobility, is to 
gaze transfixed at the beauty of Gul- 
revez. This was Shibli Bagarag's con- 
dition, for which Gulrevez sharply re- 
buked him. "Hast thou nought for the 
Sword but to gaze before thee in silli- 
ness Shame on thee." Shibli 

Bagarag was here suffering under what 
Meredith in his "Farina" described as 
"the back-blows of Sathanas." To do 
a good deed and then admire yourself 
for doing it, an act of self-denial and 
then luxuriate in its sweets, is to be 
transfixed with the beauty of Gulrevez, 
187 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

suffering so one of the deadliest 
"back-blows of Sathanas." It is thus 
that great deeds of virtue bring great 
danger to the soul. Satan reaps a fine 
harvest by following at the heels of 
men who commit noble actions, trip- 
ping them by their nobility. There are 
times when it is unlucky for a man to 
look at himself. As a bride avoids her 
mirror when robed in bridal attire, so 
ought man when robed in attire of 
hero; otherwise he will see and become 
enamoured of the Gulrevez within him- 
self. This Allegory is to be compared 
with that of Goorelka offering Shibli 
Bagarag the dew of the Lily to drink. 

After the Sword there w^as given 
Shibli Bagarag, as complementary 
equipment, the bird Koorookh. The 
signification of the bird is discovered 
by consideration of its origin. It came 
by the stirring of a fountain with the 
Sword. The fountain had but "the top 
spray of it touched with a beam of light 
and the air breathed of man," yet when 
Shibli Bagarag stirred it w^ith the Sword 
"the whole body of it took a leap tOr 
wards the light that was like the shoot 
of a long lane of silver in the moon's 
i88 



EQUIPMENT 

rays, and lo, in its place the ruffled 
feathers of a bird." Take the fountain 
to represent Shibli Bagarag's heart, his 
inner self. The stirring of it with the 
Sword, its consequent ''leap towards 
the light" would then simply mean that 
ferment, exaltation of spirit, which 
came of his new-born consciousness of 
power. No man on whom dawns the 
knowledge that he is a man apart, 
equipped for some great destiny, but 
must be profoundly affected, greatly 
elevated by the knowledge. His heart, 
stirred by the Sword, takes a "leap to- 
wards the light." No name that can be 
given to Koorookh altogether brings 
out its meaning, but if name of some 
sort is required, call it Faith. The 
service it rendered was to support 
Shibli Bagarag on its wings, and is not 
faith an exaltation, a winged support 
to the Spirit of man.^ Mounted on 
Koorookh the youth in the exuberance 
of his gladness waved the Sword, and 
lo "the sun lost that dullness on its 
disk and took a bright flame, and threw 
golden arrows everywhere; and the 
pastures were green, the streams clear, 
the sands sparkling." In the light of 
i8g 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

his own joy everything smiled. It was 
an experience that could not last, but 
could never be effaced. The man has 
had his revelation of life's radiant pos- 
sibilities, and the memory of it will 
live w^ith him in his hours of gloom. 
The bird Koorookh survives the exalt- 
ation of spirit in which it is born, 
abides with the man, doing him service. 
The Sons of Aklis, sharpeners of the 
Sw^ord, have at last done their work 
with Shibli Bagarag. They were girding 
him while as yet he knew them not. 
His thwackings, his hungers and hard- 
ships w^ere of them, so also his striv- 
ings and strayings, victories and fail- 
ures. By things outward and inward,, 
life's happenings and the siftings and 
disciplines of spirit, they were working 
on him, sharpening him. Sore has it 
been on Shibli Bagarag, this sharpen- 
ing; surely now he may have breathing 
time to take joy in its results. 'T is 
no base region, but an exalted and hon- 
ourable region of Aklis he is in. In 
the high fellowship of these the Sons 
of Aklis, and in that of Gulrevez, the 
Divine One, may he not linger blame- 
lessly? And this Sword, gotten at so 
I go 



EQUIPMENT 

great price, what glory, what delectation 
of spirit it brings! Heaven and earth 
laugh in the miracle of its light. Surely 
he may bide a little in this honourable 
region of Aklis, waving the Sword, so 
making celestial holiday. But no, the 
Sons of Aklis and Gulrevez forbid. "To 
work with the Sword" is their stern, im- 
patient command. As the candlestick 
carries light not for its own good, but 
for the good of the household, so is 
it with Shibli Bagarag and his Sword. 
If he holds it as a private possession 
the two poisonous serpents which are 
its hilt will fasten on his hand, biting it. 



igi 



TEMPTATION 



EVERY condition of soul carries in 
itself its own danger. Man is 
never so high that Satan cannot 
get at him to tempt him. Shibli Bag- 
arag as bearer of the Sword endures 
two temptations; the first arising from 
an interplay between his strength and 
his weakness, the second arising from 
his strength only. The second is im- 
measurably the more dangerous. A man 
needs the consciousness of weakness 
to protect him from his own strength. 
He who knows himself to be at once 
weak and strong is merely on the eve 
of a temptation: he who knows him- 
self wholly strong is on the eve of a 
fall. Consider first that temptation 
which came to Shibli Bagarag from 
interplay between his strength and 
weakness. It is represented in the Alle- 
gory by Noorna and her dangers as 
seen through the eye of Aklis. 
193 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

Until he got the Sword the idea of 
shaving Shagpat could remain only a 
fixed but unrealisable idea in Shibli 
Bagarag's mind. The pivot idea it was 
round w^hich consciously or uncon- 
sciously his life moved, yet none the 
less it lay shut up in himself, could 
not be put into operation. That is 
symbolised by Noorna imprisoned on 
the Pillar, waiting for the liberating 
Sw^ord. This Pillar, as was formerly 
explained, must be taken to represent 
the will. Every scheme of ambition 
which a man cherishes, but which, 
through lack of power, he cannot mean- 
time put into execution, is a Noorna 
imprisoned in the Pillar waiting for the 
liberating Sword. Too often Noorna 
waits in vain, is left neglected to fall 
a prey to Karaz, the fish. The ambition 
which a man cannot directly work at, 
he must at least work up to, otherwise 
it will cease to be his ambition, fall 
quite off the Pillar of his will into the 
jaws of that Evil One who feeds on 
deserted Noornas. With Shibli Bagarag 
in this respect all is well. So stren- 
uously has he worked up to his ambi- 
tion that the Sword for its realisation 
194 



TEMPTATION 

is now in his grasp. At last therefore 
the time has come for Noorna's liber- 
ation, for that long cherished idea of 
shaving Shagpat to be put into exe- 
cution. Noorna is actually running up 
the blade of the Sword to reach her be- 
trothed, a symbol — surely a suggestive 
one — of the fact that power to accom- 
plish duty brings duty immediately,, 
urgently before us. From that urgency 
comes Shibli Bagarag's temptation. In 
emerging from the abeyance life of 
the Pillar — the dormant recesses of the 
will — into the urgency of immediate 
duty — in running along the Sword to 
meet her betrothed — Noorna encount- 
ers much danger. Doubts, difficulties, 
tumults of thought arise in Shibli Bag- 
arag. His strength and weakness are 
in conflict; but notice, for the point 
is in his favor, 'tis through his strength 
he has come to the knowledge of his 
weakness. Formerly, when he was 
quite unfit to shave Shagpat, the task 
seemed to him easy; but now in the 
light of the Sword which qualifies him 
for the shave he perceives it to be a 
task of appalling magnitude, beset with 
difficulties and dangers past computing. 
195 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

His very fitness for the work is thus a 
mirror revealing to him his unfitness. 
Humility of this nature — the humility 
•which is the concomitant of true 
strength — does indeed in some sort 
expose a man to danger. But 't is a 
saving danger; -were Shibli Bagarag not 
exposed to it he would be exposed to 
worse. As to the precise nature of his 
experiences nothing need be said. The 
Kite, the White Ball, the Red Serpent — 
these, to be sure, might readily be given 
some more or less definite meaning by 
relating them to the powers which res- 
pectively overcame them. But it will 
be better — more in harmony with 
Meredith's design — to leave them in 
their suggestive indefiniteness. Note 
only that the powers which overcame 
them were Faith (Koorookh), Self- 
denial (Gulrevez), and Providence, per- 
haps here better called the Grace of 
God (the Sons of Aklis). Are not these, 
these alone, the powers by which man 
overcomes temptation.^ Could Meredith 
have described in more Christian fash- 
ion the helps that avail in spiritual 
warfare ? 

The temptation next to be considered, 
196 



TEMPTATION 

that described in the Allegory of 
the Veiled Figure, was not an interplay 
between strength and weakness; it 
was strength unprotected by weakness, 
tempted so to run riot, overreach itself, 
and become itself weakness. One's 
difficulty in regard to this Allegory is 
not to discover but to speak on its 
meaning. Shibli Bagarag's experience 
was here an essentially ineffable one. 
Only as standing outside it, looking at 
it from the aloofness of intellectuality, 
is speech at all possible. Then indeed 
so magically rich is the Allegory, into 
such variety of intellectual settings can 
its truth be put, that the difficulty might 
be to put a limit on speech. I shall 
merely state the broad meaning of the 
Allegory. 

A seer in his first flush of seership 
is apt to set eternity over against time 
to the dwarfing of time's affairs; after- 
wards when his seership is ripe he finds 
eternity in time to the enriching of 
time's affairs. Shibli Bagarag is new 
to the uses of seership. It is his con- 
version morn. He does not overvalue, 
cannot overvalue, the wonderful spir- 
itual treasure that has come to him; 
197 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

but in the light of it he grossly under- 
values all else. The world and the 
things of the world appear to him as 
nothingness; meaning and value quite 
knocked out of them. This is a danger 
incident to profound spiritual exper- 
ience. It is perhaps inevitable that a 
man on his first awakening to the re- 
ality of spiritual things should be seized 
with the conviction that the world and 
its concerns are Rabesqurat, illusion. 
The conviction carries danger in it. He 
who thinks the affairs of time meaning- 
less has necessarily a shallow outlook 
into eternity. He -who turns his back 
on the world, scouting it as Rabesqurat, 
is living in a spiritual vacuum, with the 
devil of pride for company. The man 
of mature and rightly developed spirit- 
uality flashes his Sword, not to peer 
through, but to enrich and illumine the 
Veil. Giving forth of his own reality 
unto Rabesqurat he perceives her to 
be, not an idle and delusive show^, but 
a mystery replete with the wisdom and 
subservient to the purposes of God. 
But spirituality, though the ultimate 
unifier, begins in antagonisms. Shibli 
Bagarag's great treasure does not en- 
198 



TEMPTATION 

rich; it dwarfs, knocks meaning and 
value out of life. The Sword, given 
him to help the world, has revealed to 
him that the world is not worth helping. 
Had the Sword been first used to shave 
Shagpat, we may be sure it would have 
shed a kindlier, if not less piercing light 
on Rabesqurat; for he only can sanely 
criticise the world who is actively en- 
gaged in helping it. As it is, Shibli 
Bagarag brings his knowledge of spir- 
itual values to bear, not helpfully, but 
antagonisingly on world-life — just the 
danger incident to his condition as one 
"born again." 

What the Veiled Figure is no man 
knows; it seems fated that those who 
seek to know shall behold in it Rabes- 
qurat. It is a discovery carrying pen- 
alty with it. A healthy life is after all 
one lived on the surface of things. 
This fair phenomenal world, this magic 
realm of appearances is not with im- 
punity to be shattered by human 
thought. "Whom God deceives is well 
deceived." They who think not to let 
even God deceive them are made pay 
a penalty. In the case of philosophers, 
the penalty, let it be admitted, appears 
199 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

trifling. It is possible for them to prove 
that life is Maya, illusion, and after due 
smack of self-gratulation at the clever- 
ness of their proof, to return to life 
and its concerns with undiminished 
zest. But it is not by the fierce light 
of the Sword philosophers peer at the 
Veiled Figure; rather by the mild light 
of academic thought, light oftimes with 
the soot of vanity in it. No conclusion 
so reached is likely to interfere v/ith 
digestion. But let us do them justice. 
There have been philosophers who 
took their own discovery badly, w^ere 
affected by it even unto pessimism. 
As having peered behind the Veil, 
and seen the nameless sight, these 
sad initiates, wisdom-blighted ones, 
took on them to become garrulous 
preachers of despair. But surely of 
all cants this cant of dilettante pes- 
simism — outcome for the most part 
of intellectual snobbishness — is the 
worst. Men of action are seldom pes- 
simists, yet properly speaking none 
but men of action can be pessimists. 
Only when a man peers at the Veiled 
Figure by the flashing of the Sword 
is he frozen into horror; peered at by 
200 



TEMPTATION 

other light he is but quickened into 
garrulity. 

Shibli Bagarag is not a man of action 
diverted at a critical moment in his 
career to the exercises of philosophy; 
nor is he a Hamlet-like mortal indus- 
triously spinning a network of sophis- 
tries wherein to entangle his will. He 
is a seer blinded by his own seership. 
As man of action it was certainly 
binding on him to enquire into the 
value, the reality of such definite phen- 
omena as from time to time he had 
to deal with. But this was not an 
enquiry into the reality of definite 
phenomena; it was an enquiry into the 
reality of phenomenal life altogether, 
a facing of the ultimate problem as to 
whether the Veiled Figure that ferried 
on the waters of time was not in its 
very essence Rabesqurat. Yet enquiry 
is not the right word to use here. The 
case with Shibli Bagarag merely was 
that in the light of his own spiritu- 
ality, his passionate reality, he looked 
at the Veiled Figure, the Mystery of 
Life, and that there burst upon him — 
he could not himself well tell how — 
the ghastly revelation that all, good and 

201 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

bad in it alike, was illusion. It was 
intuition, illumination, flash of the 
Sword of thought. No spiritual catas- 
trophe could have been more complete- 
Coming as it did when he was on the 
leve of battle, body and soul of him 
braced for great enterprise, his whole 
strength suddenly toppled over and 
became weakness. His consuming 
earnestness landed him in indifference, 
his heroic struggle after reality in the 
squalid conviction that life was illusion. 
As by a stroke of evil magic the man, 
just w^hen he seemed at his strongest, 
w^as suddenly converted into a limp, 
listless, altogether pitiable creature. 
Such abrupt and tragic reactions are 
not uncommon in life, and though they 
take widely different forms, they are 
all traceable to the same psychological 
principle. They come from peering 
through some Veil, discovery of some 
paralysing truth. The main-spring of 
the altruism of Timon of Athens was 
a subtle, but not ignoble, egoism. He 
believed his lavish gifts were but in- 
vestments, money lodged in the Bank 
of Gratitude, for which, though he 
never thought to ask it, interest at any 

202 



TEMPTATION 

time would be available. But when 
on peering through the Veil of human 
nature, he discovered he had been cher- 
ishing an illusion, his love toppled over 
on the other side, became snarling,, 
vitriolic hate. Love which expects 
nothing would not be subject to such 
reactions. It could pour itself forth and 
suffer no check from the baseness of 
its beneficiaries. But this, while it may 
seem nobler, is really not so noble as 
exacting love. In any case it was not, 
could not in the nature of things have 
been Shibli Bagarag's love. He had to 
expect something from the world, could 
not labour to help it unless as cherish- 
ing such expectation. When a man in 
setting about the work of patching an 
old garment, discovers the garment to 
be so rotten that it cannot hold the 
thread, there is necessarily an end to 
his patching. So with Shibli Bagarag 
— he who thought to patch, reform the 
w^orld. Had he been a man to find 
content in other-worldliness, he might 
at this crisis have found unholy healing 
for his sorrow. But it was to help this 
world, not to personally equip himself 
for the other he had sought the Sword; 
203 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

no private comfort could he take in the 
thought of other-worldliness. In that 
respect Shibli Bagarag's nobiUty did 
not forsake him. The case with him 
is that he is in a state of spiritual dis- 
ease in which there is no baseness. 
Lament his condition we may; ser- 
iously blame him for it we cannot. It is 
his strength, unprotected by weakness, 
that has proved his undoing. It is his 
seership, untutored by its limitations, 
that has made him blind. This exper- 
ience also w^as appointed unto the 
much-disciplined man, but there is 
hope that it will pass. Dilettante des- 
pair fattens with the years, but real des- 
pair cannot live long. All the good 
influences of life are in conspiracy 
against it. The experience may prove 
to the ultimate enrichment of Shibli 
Bagarag's soul. He has often been 
tripped by his weakness before, but this 
tripping of him by his strength may 
teach him a more watchful humility, 
a deeper, sadder wisdom by far. 

For a time he is not to be helped, 
but Abarak, his faithful companion, 
does what he can. Two hairs — em- 
blems of twin strengths — are still on 
204 



TEMPTATION 

the hero's wrist, spared to him by 
Gulrevez. These Abarak loosened, and 
behold they took the form of Genii;, 
"sons of brilliance," acknowledging 
themselves so as "slaves of the Sword." 
The meaning seems to be that Abarak 
sought to restore Shibli Bagarag by 
stirring up, making appeal to the 
strength he knew^ to be in him. The 
result was to some degree successful. 
The youth's genius flashed into ac- 
tivity, radiated strength and brilliance, 
but alas, it was all non-personal. The 
man was not in it. "Slaves of the 
Sword" indeed were the Genii, but the 
Master of the Sword was asleep, had no 
commands to give. In happier circum- 
stances the Hairs would have been 
allowed to remain quietly on Shibli 
Bagarag's wrist until he had emerged 
from Aklis, the time for their trans- 
formation into Genii being when the 
Master commenced his campaign 
against Shagpat. But Abarak was fain 
to try the experiment of awakening the 
man by means of his own strength. 
The result was that he awoke the 
strength but not the man. 

The way of resolute will — which was 
205 



DOINGS OF THE SONS OF AKLIS 

the way of the Seventh Pillar — being 
thus blocked, Shibli Bagarag had to be 
let dreamily drift, make return to active 
life by plunging down through falling 
waters; and drowning would have been 
his doom but that Noorna was there to 
receive him. It was through the bird 
Koorookh's inability to pronounce her 
betrothed's name that Noorna made the 
discovery that he had peered through 
the Veil, and "bore now a name that 
might be uttered by none." So far as this 
mighty emblem has speakable meaning, 
this seems to be its meaning. When 
the consciousness of eternity flashes 
across the unripe soul, it obliterates the 
consciousness of personality. Man 
loses grip of himself, knows himself as 
but a drop lost in the ocean; his name, 
the symbol of his selfhood^ cannot be 
uttered. This was Shibli Bagarag's 
awful condition. By his vision of time 
and the things of time in the overpow- 
ering light of eternity, he lost healthy 
grip of his own identity. His faith in 
the reality of his own selfhood tottered. 
The bird Koorookh could not utter his 
name. 

The sleep in the bosom of Noorna 
206 



TEMPTATION 

which restored Shibli Bagarag to his 
active self is a beautiful Allegory, but 
so simple that it scarcely needs inter- 
pretation. His ambition which in the 
past had woven itself into, made itself 
his life, slowly re-awoke within him — 
a reason-restoring, vivifying influence. 
It was a dream, could not for a -time 
be more. The man's thoughts were 
upheaved, broken loose, scattered into 
eternity; they had slowly and uncon- 
sciously to co-ordinate themselves a- 
fresh, and 't was round Noorna, she 
who had been the spring of all his 
activity, that they co-ordinated, recover- 
ing health and sanity so. The healing 
process happily completed itself, and 
Shibli Bagarag was himself again. Yet 
never quite the same; none who peer 
through the Veil can ever again be the 
same. Something had entered his life 
that could not be banished, and some- 
thing had passed from it that could not 
return. Henceforth we see in him a great, 
stern, resolute man, wise and unflinch- 
ing in his ways ; but gone were the buoy- 
ancy, the light-heartedness, the sweet 
and dewy grace of earlier days. He 
carried in his heart a dowry of sadness. 
207 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 



PLOTTINGS 



A MAN who fights for duty's sake, 
and with no lust of battle in him, 
may be the best of men, but 
scarcely the best of soldiers. The war- 
instinct— the Call of Battle enthusiasm 
— in however purified a form, may be 
merely the survival of man's brute 
heritage, yet nothing so far accruing 
to him from his other, nobler heritage 
can quite take its place. Duty — the 
spur of the will — is nobler, but not so 
ready, so spontaneous in its strength, 
as instinct — the spur of the blood. 
Hence however it be with Shibli Bag- 
arag as a man, as a soldier he is ser- 
iously weakened by the loss of that 
third in the Trinity of Strengths, sac- 
rificed to Gulrevez in purgation of his 
vanity. But for that loss Noorna de- 
clared "earth could have planted no 
obstacle" to her lover's stroke. Not 
that, as it is, the reformer conducts his 

211 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

campaign listlessly; his sense of duty 
is too strong for that. But there is a 
deliberation, an uninspired caution in 
his methods, which the war-enthusiasm, 
were it still his, might have worthily 
redeemed by flash of brilliance and 
open daring. In nothing does the 
inspiration of the moment count for 
more than in battle, and Shibli Bag- 
arag's far-seeing and elaborate plot- 
tings seem to leave him too little open 
to such inspiration. Still his plottings, 
on their own level, are not unworthy 
of the much disciplined man. As is 
fitting they are conducted unostenta- 
tiously; he himself, now happily free 
from the itch for publicity, keeping in 
the background. Without cruelty yet 
also w^ithout mercy is he to his fol- 
lowers, considering only what service 
each man can render, appointing him 
to that service regardless of the ten- 
derness of his skin. Shall he who 
himself has endured thwacks, is ready 
to endure them again, shrink from 
endangering the skin of others ? By 
Allah, 'twere a weakness unworthy of 
the Master. How to win the battle is 
Shibli Bagarag's first thought; after 

212 



PLOTTINGS 

that, and only so far as consistent with 
that, how to spare the soldier. 

The "Plot" calls for little interpreta- 
tion. It is not such a plot as in its 
entirety ever was or could be put into 
operation, and to that extent it must 
be pronounced unconvincing. But 
Allegory would be falling below its 
own level did it attempt, even in prac- 
tical matters, to embody the prosaically 
practical. Its realm is the realm of prin- 
ciples; its function to present fact in 
the form of truth, to unshell the fact 
and give us the kernel. While leaving 
untouched most of the details of the 
"Plot," I make such references as seem 
necessary. 

It is by the ruthless exploitage of 
Baba Mustapha that the plot is worked 
out. Baba, both by his strength and 
weakness, is eminently adapted for the 
purpose. He is not a man of faith; 
but so colossal is his self-conceit it 
simulates, and that not badly, many of 
faith's functions. Were it possible that 
counterfeit strength could be converted, 
by mere quantitative magnificence, into 
genuine strength, Baba would indeed 
be a man to be reckoned with. But it 
213 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

is not possible; and the man's virtues 
are tawdry at best, and subject to 
sudden collapse. If his self-importance 
prompts him to undertake great tasks, 
his pettiness of spirit betrays him to 
failure in the midst of them. To stand 
conspicuous in the forefront of things, 
doing nothing in the noisiest possible 
manner; to pose and fuss and gabble 
in the iDelief that he is the centre of 
movements and the controller of men — 
that is Baba Mustapha. In further 
justice admit him to be a persuasive 
and prolific theorist, professor in all its 
branches of the science of reform. 
Into whatever country Baba enters 
there he proposes reform. He is for 
shaving everybody and everything, 
carries tackle for the purpose, and in- 
ventions, lathering preparations of his 
own, guaranteed infallible. It is this 
brilliant fool whom Shibli Bagarag, he 
who has learned to "study men," ruth- 
lessly exploits. Clearly it is impossible 
for such a man as Baba to co-operate 
with the Master, enter intelligently yet 
subserviently into his plans. Hence 
since he scorns to become a servant, 
he suffers the indignity of being made 
214 



PLOTTINGS 

a tool; is led, blindfolded by his own 
vanity, whithersoever the Master wills. 
He jumps at the proposal that he 
should shave Shagpat, become himself 
Master of the Event. When he fails, 
as to be sure he does, care is taken 
that the Shagpatians are fully informed 
of the matter. The result — and this 
was the object of the plot — is that they 
become vaingloriously convinced that 
Shagpat is inviolable as under the pro- 
tection of the Unseen. And truly the 
power to which Shagpat owed protec- 
tion was after its sort an unseen power, 
being none other than a Flea. As 
symbol the Flea must be pronounced 
perfect. It stands for life's petty wor- 
ries, those little everyday annoyances 
w^hich distract man's attention, hinder 
him in his work. They abound every- 
y^here assail everybody — that sort of 
Flea; but the man of passionate 
earnestness is scarcely, if at all, con- 
scious of their attentions. Bite they 
never so assiduously they cannot dis- 
turb him in his work. Baba Mustapha 
— the shallow, vanity-inspired one — is 
tortured by the Flea, cannot because 
of it come at Shagpat with his razor; 
215 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

but Shibli Bagarag — the deep, resolute 
man — no complaint of Fleas does he 
make. Is not this as good a test as 
any of the greatness, the work-outcome 
of a man? If you let life's distractions, 
its innumerable petty worries, break in 
upon and defeat your industries — by 
that token know yourself among the 
weaklings, those from whom good 
work cannot come. Like Baba Must- 
apha, in such case, you will likely be 
a mighty gabbler about your work, 
your schemes and determinations, but 
like him also you w^ill be defeated by 
a Flea. All but a few are so defeated. 
It is the power of the microscopically 
small that has ever to be feared. Great 
temptations may summon man to him- 
self, call forth correspondingly great 
resistance; but small temptations, as 
being small, put man off his guard. 
When Satan acts as vetoist it is in the 
form of a Flea that he acts; not openly 
forbidding man to do good, but dis- 
turbing him, frittering away his time, 
eating into him with life's round of 
petty distractions. One has only to 
look back on his past, witness the 
failures with which his years are 
216 



PLOTTINGS 

strewn, to confess to the mighty, life- 
consuming power of the Flea. 

So vainglorious have the Shagpatians 
become that they no longer think of de- 
fending Shagpat against the attentions 
of barbercraft, rather they challenge 
barbercraft to do its worst. Baba 
Mustapha is compelled, in presence of 
King and people, to make fresh at- 
tempts on Shagpat's head. Again he 
suffers defeat, but not this time by the 
Flea. It is by a w^onder, even the 
Burning of the Identical, defeat now 
comes. As first meaning of the Allegory 
the Burning of the Identical is to be 
taken as the symbol of the spiritual 
terrors of Shagpatism. Shagpat does 
not need the scimitars of the King's 
guard to defend him. An emergency 
has but to arrive to prove that his real 
strength lies not in the secular arm, 
but in his own spiritual terrors. At 
opposition, touch of would-be reform- 
er's razor, there has but to be a Burning 
of the Shagpatian Identical — a wrathful 
display of spiritual authority — and the 
would-be reformer is hurled back 
"sprawling and spuming and uttering 
cries of horror." How often in the past 

217 
o 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

has the Burning of the Papal Identical 
flared over Christendom, a portent, a 
thing of terror, even as that magical 
Hair on the head of Shagpat! To this 
day indeed when the Papal Identical 
burns, it is a might and a miracle on 
earth, millions of hearts acknowledging 
the terrors of it. All offices and author- 
ities may exhibit this burning of the 
Identical, for all in essence are spiritual. 
All men also may exhibit it; and indeed 
it is when that spiritual might and 
mystery which is the essence of one's 
manhood asserts itself, flares forth in 
its majesty, that the Burning of the 
Identical becomes veritable miracle, 
manifestation of the power of the Un- 
seen. It need not be in wrath that the 
Identical burns. Its mightiest burnings 
are the burnings of love, and these are 
the burnings which endure and subdue. 
From Christ on the Cross did there not 
arise a holiest, fiercest flame — reveal- 
ment of that immortal energy of Love 
which was and is the Identical of all 
Identicals, even the Divine? The world 
is still burning in that flame, will burn 
in it till all is purified. Understand 
therefore that the burning of the 
218 



PLOTTINGS 

Identical is simply a manifestation of 
essential selfhood. Under ordinary 
conditions, alike in the case of men 
and institutions, the essential selfhood 
is never quite revealed, often as not 
indeed it seems quite hidden. But 
some great occasion arises, and the 
man or institution stands discovered. 
For good or evil the light shines, the 
Identical burns, and you have your 
revelation. In Shagpat's case the 
Burning of the Identical is best to be 
compared to the Spiritual terrors of 
Rome before which many brave men 
have fallen back "sprawling and spum- 
ing and uttering cries of horror." 

The success of Shibli Bagarag's plot 
is marked by the temper of the Shagpat- 
ians. Behold the madness to which 
they have reached ! They want to 
prolong a miracle, turn a miracle into 
a show. They want to put God's grace 
— for such they think it — on exhibition, 
keep it in operation for sensational 
purposes. This Baba Mustapha is a 
renowned barber, is he } None on earth 
more skilful in the science of barber- 
craft? Then he's just the man for us. 
Compel him to make another and yet 
2ig 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

another attempt on Shagpat. That will 
keep the miracle going; an excellent 
thing for the establishment of the faith; 
an excellent thing also — but that is by 
[the way — for the prosperity of our 
city, and of us its worthy citizens. Was 
it not insanity? To invite danger in 
prder to give divine grace its oppor- 
tunity is to tempt God, and to tempt 
God is to court sorrow. Faith protects 
from evil, but when faith degenerates 
into presumption it is itself a great evil. 
God may take your part, but never in 
the spirit of a partisan. He is on your 
side so long only as you are on his 
iside. If in a great emergency a great 
mercy has been vouchsafed you, do not 
provoke a similar emergency in the 
expectation of receiving a return of the 
mercy, for God will not be traded on. 
Shibli Bagarag's plottings have been 
terribly successful. 

Was he justified in pursuing such 
plots, practising on his enemies in this 
fashion? This is really to ask whether 
[war itself is justified, for war is essen- 
tially a game of wits rather than of 
igunpowder. But Shibli Bagarag was 
not at war in any other than the sense 

220 



PLOTTINGS 

that Luther was at war. His enemies 
were his friends. It does not matter. 
The prophet can afford to be candid, 
but the practical reformer can seldom 
afford to be altogether so. How far 
and in what sense he may "employ 
deceits" and yet keep his honour un- 
tarnished is a large question, unnecess- 
ary to be discussed here. But was not 
Shibli Bagarag by his deceits working 
injury to the souls of these Shagpat- 
ians, basing his victory on their moral 
deterioration, their spiritual insanity — 
and do the ethics even of war justify 
that.^ The ethics of w^ar certainly do 
not justify that. The general who 
debases his enemy in order to prepare 
idefeat for them, is w^aging war on 
humanity itself. Shibli Bagarag would 
be defeating his own friendly purposes 
towards the Shagpatians were he guilty 
of this detestable thing. The case with 
him however merely is that he pro- 
vokes his opponents to feed fat on 
their own folly, in the hope that the 
after effects of the feast may wean them 
from their folly. He encourages their 
infatuation, lets their disease come to 
a head in order the more speedily and 

221 



iTHE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

effectively to cure it. It is often the 
only -way both with physical and spir- 
itual troubles; and Shibli Bagarag's 
plot, his "deceits" when fully enquired 
into are seen to have meant nothing 
w^orse than this. All the same it must 
be admitted that one's moral instincts 
revolt against the employment of even 
such deceits for such purposes, and that 
to educate one's instincts into the re- 
quired liberalism would be to run the 
risk of tampering with and weakening 
them. But it is by grappling with such 
problems, working them out, not with 
tortuous casuistry but in the light of 
that law of laws, which is the law of 
love, that man attains unto spiritual 
freedom. 



222 



BATTLES 



IT has been previously mentioned, as 
a guiding principle of Meredith's 
work, that events in it are arranged 
not according to their time-relations, 
but according to their thought-rela- 
tions. That principle must be borne in 
mind in our study of Shibli Bagarag's 
great fight with Shagpat. In the Alle- 
gory the fight is represented as coming 
at the end, forming the dramatic con- 
clusion, the crowded climax of the 
reformer's career. As matter of fact 
since the hour of his betrothal to 
Noorna, he was always in some manner 
fighting Shagpat. This chapter therefore 
really represents not a part of his 
career, but his entire career viewed in 
its battle aspect. He did not delay his 
fight till he had gained the Sword; for 
indeed he gained, could only gain the 
Sword by and in the fight. At first 
a small weapon, it grew and increased 
223 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

otnightily in his hands, till men knew 
it to be the veritable Sword of Aklis. 
Be it understood then that just as the 
Quest of the Spells represents Shibli 
Bagarag's career in its disciplinary, 
wisdom-seeking aspect, so the battle — 
the Flashes of the Blade — represents 
his career in its aggressive, Shagpat- 
reforming aspect; and that with him, 
as with Luther, these two ran side by 
side. 

The account of the fight is altogether 
allegorical; and for point, rapidity, 
condensation, it is wonderful Allegory. 
Every detail here carries meaning, but 
to isome of the more important only 
will it be necessary to refer. 

Three times the blade flashed harm- 
less, seemingly harmless lightning; at 
the fourth only was Shagpat's head 
touched, partly shaved. These flashes 
were not empty displays, purposeless 
preliminary flourishes that might have 
been dispensed with. In every Re- 
formation the blade must flash before 
it strikes. How often before it struck 
did Luther's Sword flash what seemed 
harmless lightning over Papacy. Shag- 
pat slept soundly, undisturbed by the 
224 



BATTLES 

flashing; he on whose head at that time 
rested Rome's Magical Hair slept also, 
but not quite so soundly. 'T is recorded 
that he muttered in his sleep, as if 
troubled by a pestilent dream, com- 
plaining of a "squabble among monks." 
" Coming events cast their shadows 
before." If it is the unexpected that 
happens, it is because we are unskilful 
readers of signs, for always in world- 
movements the Sword flashes before it 
strikes. In the French Revolution did 
not the mighty Sword then at work 
flash and flash before it struck to the 
destruction, the sw^eeping away of 
things that were ? King and nobles 
knew not till too late what the flashing 
portended, and so their doom came on 
them. 

But always besides the Flashes of 
the Blade there is darkness preceding 
great events. The darkness, be it noted, 
spake saying "I am Abarak of the bar, 
preceder of the Event." In all his re- 
lations Abarak represents w^ill-power; 
here, as I think, it is not individual 
will-power, but the will of the people 
he must be taken to represent. The 
will of the people constitutes the riddle 
225 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

of destiny, the darkness into which 
those who would forecast events must 
struggle to peer. On the eve of 
great events the thundercloud, the 
portentous darkness which Abarak is, 
speaks; but few can interpret the voice 
beyond knowing that there is threat in 
it, prediction of the coming of some 
new, maybe monstrous thing. Hence 
men confront the future with wild fore- 
bodings, their "hearts failing them for 
fear, and for looking after those things 
that are coming on the earth." The 
universal panic of the hour, its uncer- 
tainties and alarms, are symbolised 
hyperbolically in the Allegory by fierce 
animals, creatures of the desert, crowd- 
ing from all quarters into the city, 
tamed by terror. It is a feature pre- 
ceding every great crisis in history, 
every "end of an age" this terror, 
foreboding, darkness; and always it is 
Abarak, the will of the people, which is 
the darkness. Could a nation see 
into that darkness it would behold its 
destiny. 

Noorna also appears before the King, 
pleading for the life of Abarak and 
Feshnavat. " Delay the stroke yet 
226 



BATTLES 

awhile O head of the magnanimous. 
I am she claimed of Shagpat; surely I 
am bride of him that is Master of the 
Event, and the hour of bridals is the 
hour of clemency." Noorna — the idea 
of shaving Shagpat — surely the King 
and all men were familiar with her, 
knew of her betrothal with Shibli 
Bagarag. But hitherto none permitted 
themselves to believe that betrothal 
would end in marriage. The idea of 
shaving Shagpat, they fain thought, 
would remain an idea, nothing more, 
to the world's end. Now the signs of 
the times — the flashes and the darkness 
— put them in doubt. The betrothal 
may after all be destined to be con- 
summated; nay judging by these rap- 
idly accumulating omens the hour 
which is to see the shaving of Shagpat 
is about to strike. Things being so it 
occurs, is suggested to the King that 
it might be wise to spare Feshnavat 
and Abarak, for why, if the Star -of 
Shibli Bagarag is in the ascendant, 
provoke him by the death of his 
friends? "The hour of bridals is the 
hour of clemency." But the King 
hardens his heart. Even at this late 
227 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

hour he thinks to stave off the threat- 
ened danger by energetic severity. 
Feshnavat, Abarak, all enemies of Shag- 
pat must die. So may Shagpat yet 
triumph. Since this is the King's policy 
Shibli Bagarag must meet it, and that 
immediately, by policy equally ener- 
getic. The time for negotiation is past. 
The Sword flashes, not this time 
harmless lightning, but to the striking, 
shaving one side of Shagpat's head. 

"As the moon sits on the midnight" 
so sits Shibli Bagarag on Koorookh, 
and the bird's vast wings "overshadow 
the entire land." It is a symbolical 
description of the man who, through 
possession of large assurance, strong- 
winged ambition, dominates his age. 
Master-spirits, great men of action may 
differ in other qualities, but one and 
all they sit on Koorookh, achieving so 
their tasks. And it is "as the moon sits 
on the midnight" that they sit; a regal 
light in the darkness, ruling and illum- 
ining the darkness. The grandeur, the 
poetic truth and beauty of the emblem 
must be manifest. The world contains 
no finer picture of those great men, 
master-spirits who come to the front 
228 



BATTLES 

in dark and troubled times, and to 
whom men turn for guidance as in- 
stinctively as they turn to the moon 
in midnight. 

Notice that Shibli Bagarag's success 
was like to prove his undoing. The 
blood of his enemies, when he cleaved 
them with the Sword, proved fire, flow- 
ing "over the feathers of Koorookh, 
lighting him in a conflagration." Suc- 
cess, especially if come by early and 
easily, is like to be the forerunner of 
folly and failure. It sets Koorookh on 
fire; makes man's faith in himself and 
his star excessive; gives rise to that 
*' vaulting ambition which o'erleaps 
itself, and falls on the other side." 
Shibli Bagarag escaped this danger. 
Koorookh, when in conflagration "flew 
constantly to a fountain of earth below, 
and extinguished it." To name the 
fountain with a name covering all its 
meaning would be difficult, and is un- 
necessary. It represents that saving 
consciousness of the limitations of 
man and the uncertainties of fortune 
which moderates one's confidence in 
his destiny, keeps him on the lines of 
sanity. It is the water of humility; and 
22g 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

in it the bird Faith, after every victory, 
must bathe, lest it be consumed by the 
fires of presumption. For lack of this 
bathing it was that Napoleon perished. 
His Koorookh, plentifully drenched in 
the blood of his enemies, went thereby 
on fire, a very conflagration of pre- 
sumption. His faith in his star became 
a magnificent madness, urging him to 
attempt, enabling him for a time seem- 
ingly to achieve the impossible. But 
in the end it betrayed him and laid him 
low. Had his Koorookh, when on fire, 
but stooped for cooling to the "fountain 
of earth below," surely Napoleon's fate 
would have been different. But if 
"nothing succeeds like success," noth- 
ing also may fail like success. Failure 
indeed is inevitable unless humility 
increases in proportion as victories 
accumulate. 

Queen Rabesqurat proved Shibli Bag- 
arag's most dangerous enemy in battle. 
"The terrible Queen streamed in the sky 
like a red disastrous comet .... and 
lo, there were suddenly a thousand 
Shagpats multiplied about, and the 
hand of Shibli Bagarag became ex- 
hausted yrith hewing at them." In 
230 



BATTLES 

all political warfare, battles of reform, 
misrepresentation plays a mighty part. 
It .matters not that the reformer has 
studied deep into the social question, 
laid his finger unerringly on the root- 
grievance, the dominant injustice of 
the day; in actual warfare it can hardly 
be but that time and again he will suffer 
confusion, make war on shadows. As 
dominating his age the reformer is 
necessarily more than most men sen- 
sitive to its influence; indeed he is the 
common receptacle wherein its in- 
numerable wisdom-mongers aspire to 
deposit their wisdom. The inherent 
perplexities of the problem are aggra- 
vated for him by this babeldom of con- 
flicting counsel. All sections of society 
admit that something is grievously 
wrong, that some Shagpat, monstrous 
in hairiness, is blighting the world; 
but as to wliat this Shagpat really <is 
scarcely any two sections are in agree- 
pient. The reformer is pelted with 
conflicting opinions, not all of them 
honest and disinterested. For real 
Shagpatians, perceiving that he is 
already working on dangerously right 
lines, deliberately invoke the aid of 
231 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

Rabesqurat, the "lying spirit," in order 
to lead him astray. Falsehoods, mis- 
representations, illusive Shagpats, are 
multiplied by the thousand. The re- 
former's energies are exhausted with 
hewing at lies — surely the most weari- 
some, discouraging, disgusting part of 
his work. But it is work he cannot 
escape, for when Satan's kingdom is 
attacked Queen Rabesqurat, his best 
ally, jiever fails to "stream in the sky 
like a red disastrous comet." 

Notable is the help little man Abarak 
renders Shibli Bagarag in this battle 
against lies. He threw a pellet on the 
eye of Aklis "and this sent out a 
stretching finger of beams and singled 
forth very Shagpat from the myriad of 
resemblances." It is unnecessary to 
consider whether it was in his indi- 
vidual capacity, or as spokesman, 
representative of the popular will that 
Abarak rendered this aid, for in truth 
it was in both capacities. There are 
occasions when the dunce can help the 
•genius, help him better indeed than 
could a brother genius. Abarak's 
downrightness of purpose, his limita- 
tions in point of intellect, saved him 
232 



BATTLES 

from many of the confusions, the cross 
currents of thought, which perplexed 
Shibli Bagarag. It was not advice; it 
was a palpable something — a pellet, a 
fact, which the little man threw at the 
perplexed reformer. That, better than 
any subtlest argument, dispelled the 
reformer's fantasies, clarified his vision, 
gave him grip of realities again. As 
Baalam, in the matter of spiritual vision, 
his strong point, was surpassed and 
put to shame by his ass, so did it 
happen here. Shibli Bagarag's strength 
was to see facts, make facts speak, yet 
in this point of strength Abarak, the 
dull one, the aforetime slave of Rabes- 
qurat, puts him to shame. It often 
happens so in life. The lessons taught 
a man by his inferiors are lessons 
which, if he learns at all, he learns thor- 
oughly. Experience does not remove 
the boundaries and distinctions set up 
by thought, but it sometimes pitches 
us unceremoniously over them. There 
is doubtless a vast difference between 
the dunce and the genius, yet know, 
them better and you may frequently 
have occasion to wonder which is 
dunce and which genius. 
233 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

Notice the trick Shibli Bagarag played 
on Rabesqurat. He "put the blade be- 
tween the first and second thought in 
the head of Rabesqurat, so that the 
pense of the combat became immed- 
iately confused in her mind, and she 
used her power as the fool does, equally 
against all, for the sake of mischief 
only." The meaning seems to be that 
Shibli Bagarag turned the tables on his 
enemies, confused by the subtlety of 
his tactics their sense of the position 
of affairs, as they had for a time con- 
fused his. Even had there been no 
subtlety on his part this was what 
was likely to happen. Queen Rabes- 
qurat seldom remains long mistress of 
her own illusions. Whatever effect 
they may have on others, it is certain 
that his own lies confuse the liar. In 
every prolonged battle fought out 
largely with the artillery of falsehood, 
the combatants end by unwittingly 
turning their artillery against them- 
selves. Lies may keep their ranks and 
mind their drill for a time, but sooner 
or later they get out of hand, prove 
anarchic soldiers, spreading confusion 
in both camps. Men will cease shooting 
234 



BATTLES 

if in doubt whether it is friend or 
foe they are shooting at, but in similar 
circumstances they will not cease lying. 
On the contrary it is then they will 
lie most industriously. Queen Rabes- 
qurat was no longer mistress of her 
own illusions, but she did not on that 
account cease to produce illusions. 
While her head was clear she lied 
cautiously; w^hen it became confused 
she lied at random, prolifically. When 
she thus uses her powers "as the fool 
does, equally against all," by that token 
know that the truth is about to prevail. 
When Noorna saw how sorely Shibli 
Bagarag was put to it in the fight, she 
cried: "Yea though I lose my beauty 
and the love of my betrothed, I must 
join in this or he '11 be lost." This 
daring Allegory deals with a great 
matter, and forms a fitting climax to 
the whole work. Shibli Bagarag's path 
to victory has all along been paved w^ith 
sacrifice. Every bit of strength that is 
in him is the strength that comes of 
sacrifice. By a great self-surrender it 
was that he gained the Sword, and now 
nothing but a perilously greater sur- 
render can make the Sword effective. 
235 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

Noorna must enter the fight and take 
the risk. To understand what this 
means it is necessary to remember that 
Noorna has grown immensely since our 
first meeting with her. Merely as a 
living idea, engaging Shibli Bagarag's 
thoughts, she must have grown; but 
as a duty, engaging not his thoughts 
only but his activities, the growth has 
been great and of happiest quality. It 
is not reading into her an overstretch 
of meaning to say that she now repre- 
sents, in the widest sense, Shibli Bag- 
arag's holy of holies, that in him which 
is and which he would fain keep wholly 
pure. When the point of pride with 
a man has to do with his character, it 
is generally Pharisaism, moral faddism, 
bringing him some good maybe, but 
certainly much evil. But when it has to 
do with his work, the struggle to rightly 
accomplish his work, it is a seed 
of genuine nobility, having in it the 
potency of happiest growth. If a man 
is proud of his Noorna, strives to keep 
her clean and beautiful, she in return 
may make him, the whole of him, clean 
and beautiful. So is it with Shibli Bag- 
arag. He owes his nobility to Noorna. 
236 



BATTLES 

All of it is inspired by and centres 
round her. Were she to cease to be his 
dearest, worthiest pride, what pride, 
w^hat support would remain? It be- 
hoves him therefore as he values his 
soul's health to keep Noorna out of 
risks. Behold her on the contrary in 
the midst of risks, exposed in battle to 
the venom of that scorpion whose sting 
is fatal to beauty. It would be giving 
the Allegory a too facile interpretation 
to say that it merely means that in 
their practical working out a man's 
ideals must lose their virginal bright- 
ness, take on some stain of com- 
promise. Neither would it be enough 
to say that in the stress of battle — the 
entanglements and compulsions of 
practical affairs — a man inevitably falls 
somew^hat away from his own purity, 
stumbles into actions of which his 
conscience, in calmer moments, cannot 
approve. The Allegory means that, but 
surely it means vastly more. It shadows 
forth a last and noblest sacrifice made 
by Shibli Bagarag for his cause. If in 
the nature of things the sacrifice was 
not altogether deliberate — the thing 
sacrificed being in a sense deliberation 
237 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

itself — it only shows at what price of 
perilous nobility victory was purchased. 
If a man keeps thinking of himself, 
puritanically watchful of his soul's 
health, preferring rather to lose his 
cause than that his soul should suffer 
stain in the winning of it, then he is 
not yet ripe for victory. He must throw 
himself with selfless abandonment into 
the fight, holding nothing back, keep- 
ing nothing in reserve. Noorna even, 
his soul's treasure must enter the battle, 
and take the risk. This was the case 
w^ith Shibli Bagarag, and in regard to 
it let no question of casuistry be raised; 
for in truth the man was on a plane 
of thought nobly removed from, exalted 
above casuistry. It was not a case of 
debating within himself whether or 
how far he would be justified in doing 
evil that good might come; it was a 
case of abandonment, disregardfulness 
of self, willingness, if necessary, to im- 
peril his own soul in order to achieve 
his great purpose. "I could wish," 
said St. Paul, "that I myself were ac- 
cursed from Christ for my brethren's 
sake"; and a similar ultra heroic spirit 
on the part of Shibli Bagarag is what 
238 



BATTLES 

is signified by Noorna entering the 
battle, risking the scorpion's sting to 
help her betrothed. 

But behold the sequel to this great 
abandonment. No pleasure could Shibli 
Bagarag take in victory, when it came 
to him, because that Noorna "was with- 
ering from a sting of the scorpion shot 
against her bosom." The sting of the 
scorpion, the poisoned memory blight- 
ing that in him which was holiest and 
sweetest — what matter though he had 
come by it through utter surrender to 
his cause .^ He need not have come by 
it. Had he been resting aright on his 
strength his soul would have been safe, 
never safer than in abandonment ; 
Noorna could have entered the fight 
and yet escaped the scorpion. If Shibli 
Bagarag has done wrong, why should 
he not suffer the consequence of his 
wrongdoing? Even the sins man falls 
into for God's sake, God will punish; 
even the sting Noorna comes by in the 
work of self-denial withers her beauty. 
Shibli Bagarag's peace of mind is gone. 
Success is poisoned for him by the 
sting of the scorpion. But if love 
washes away the sins committed 
239 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

against herself, much more will she 
wash away those men stumble into 
for her sake. Noorna is conveyed for 
nursing and healing to Gulrevez in 
Aklis — Gulrevez that was "alone cap- 
able of restoring her and counteracting 
the malice of the scorpion by the hand 
of purity." Thus ministered to, Noorna 
in due time returns to Shibli Bagarag 
"fair and fresh in the revival of health 
and beauty." Sins prompted by genuine 
love are but erring virtues; He who is 
Infinite Love will correct them in 
mercy, purge them from the venom of 
the scorpion, and receive them in 
beauty unto Himself. 



240 



SPOILS 



CONGRATULATIONS to Shibli 
Bagarag! The degree of Master 
of an Event, highest and most-to- 
be coveted of degrees, has at last been 
conferred on him. The candidate for 
greatness has become great, God and 
man acknowledging his greatness. No 
sham crown prematurely snatched by 
the hand of vanity, but a real crown 
is what he wears now. May he not 
therefore at last settle down to rest- 
fulness and the blameless enjoyment of 
things.'* Holiday rest and enjoyment 
certainly, but nothing further; never 
again must he debase his head with 
that discarded fool's crown "the crown 
of him who hath achieved his ambi- 
tion and resteth here." But surely if 
his life-work is accomplished there 
ought to be some sort of honourable 
superannuation for Shibli Bagarag. Im- 
possible. There is no superannuation 
241 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

for the man who loves his fellows. 
Not even if he is a spent force, worn 
out w^ith much toiling? Impossible 
again. The man who loves his fellows 
is never a spent force. Love does not 
fade with fading bodily powers, and 
love is mightiest of forces. It is said 
of the Apostle John that in his last 
enfeebled days he was wont to have 
himself carried to Church in a litter, 
that from it, as from the most revered 
of pulpits, he might whisperingly preach 
to the people. Such as John could 
never be a spent force. But if God never 
superannuates his servants, never gives 
them privilege of honourable idleness 
in return for work done, what is 
Shibli Bagarag's reward? Much every 
"way. For one thing, though a small, 
there is the gratitude of his fellows. 
To live on the gratitude of the public 
is indeed next to living on its alms; 
but this, Shibli Bagarag, the erstwhile 
ass-eared one, is w^atchfully aware of. 
No longer does he stay himself on 
public favour, reckon it among his 
abiding assets. But as having learned 
to seek the approval of God, he is in 
a position properly to estimate, and 
242 



SPOILS 

therefore blamelessly to enjoy the ap- 
proval of men. Also in the treasures 
of memory he finds genuine reward of 
service. Memories grow not in bulk 
only, but in significance with the years; 
the time comes when man's compan- 
ionship is mainly with his own mem- 
ories. It is a great matter therefore to 
Shibli Bagarag, a rich provision laid up 
in store for his age, that his mind is 
stored with noble memories; surely 
from the conning of them not boast- 
fulness, but charity, mellower wisdom, 
will crown his after days. But while 
the delights of memory are permissible 
delights, Shibli Bagarag must not suc- 
cumb to them. He would be but a 
dead man were he to wander among the 
tombs of the past reading its epitaphs 
on himself. Not as one wasteful of 
thought, brooding over the achieve- 
ments of bye-gone days, but as one 
living in, finding the fruits of the past 
in the present, must the reformer seek 
his reward. It is in the betterment of 
the world, the glad consciousness that 
he has contributed towards its better- 
ment, that his reward lies. In the 
words of the poet: 
243 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

"The blush with which their 

folly they confess 
Is the first prize of his supreme 

success." 
A prize indeed this earthly, yet heaven- 
ly in its nature. Put it that no material 
gains, that neither honours nor recog- 
nition of service were his, would it so 
greatly matter when the world is given 
unto him for reward? He has but to 
w^itness its emancipation, its leap for- 
ward into light, to find recompense for 
all his labours. Additional recompense 
is his in that he is now secure of a 
larger field and more commanding 
opportunity for further labour. The 
w^orld never deposes, cannot indeed 
depose its true leaders. Statesmen 
hold office by the will of the people, 
but reformers of the Shibli Bagarag 
type by the w^ill of God. Therefore he 
is free to keep at the front of things, 
not witnessing only but guiding the 
world in its progress. It is a great 
position and brings proportionately 
great care, but where no care is neither 
can there be joy. Man cannot afford 
to part w^ith his cares otherwise than 
by triumphing over them; it is from 
244 



SPOILS 

them that by the alchemy of spirit 
he extracts all his purest, most abiding 
joys. Precious indeed are Shibli Bag- 
arag's spoils of victory; surely many 
ambitious youths are nobly envious 
of him, and of the kingship he has 
achieved among men. But more prec- 
ious by far than these is the music 
of a voice speaking in the ear of the 
reformer's soul, and 't is the voice of 
the Divine One, the "well done good 
and faithful servant" of the Master! 

Thus far Shibli Bagarag. But we 
also, to the extent that we have suc- 
ceeded in interpreting the Allegory, are 
entitled to look for spoils. It has 
doubtless been good exercise for our 
teeth, this cracking of Meredithian nuts; 
but if the nuts have proved empty we 
will consider we might have put our 
teeth to better use. But they have not 
proved empty. For myself I make 
sorrowful confession in regard to some 
of the daintiest and sweetest of these 
Meredithian nuts that in my endeavour 
to crack I have but clumsily crushed 
them, sadly injuring the kernel. But 
however I may have mangled the nuts, 
even in the mangling I have proved 
245 



THE BALDNESS OF SHAGPAT 

they are not empty, and that is some 
gain. 

That my gains are not greater — 
viewing me no longer as nut-cracker — 
is not wholly my fault, for indeed they 
have been partly filched from me by 
magic. I always knew that fruit is 
never so sw^eet as when eaten fresh off 
the bush; and when I designed to fill 
my hamper from Meredith's Garden of 
Allegory, I reckoned on deterioration. 
Still I thought that as carried fruits go, 
I could give you some fair samples of 
the produce of the Garden. But alas, 
no sooner were the samples placed in 
my hamper than I noticed them, espec- 
ially the best, the choice clusters of sap 
and beauty, undergo mysterious deter- 
ioration. No ordinary deterioration 
was it, but of a kind to vex and puzzle 
me, set me viciously chiding my ow^n 
mishandling of the fruit. But now I 
know the secret. The land of Allegory 
is an enchanted land, and the law of 
its enchantment is that all fruits car- 
ried out of it suffer magical blight, some 
indeed being in a moment shrivelled 
into saplessness. Still if you inspect 
my hamper you may find some samples 
246 



SPOILS 

which have suffered less than others 
under this blight. I am not without 
hope that these samples may please 
you, maybe even induce you to visit 
the Garden for yourself, that you may 
pluck its fruit fresh from the bush. 

My last word is no figure of speech, 
but a plain statement of a profound 
conviction. All that is best is for the 
young. A book which suits, nobly 
meets the noble needs of youth, is nec- 
essarily a great book. "The Shaving 
of Shagpat," written in his youth by 
a man who even to old age retained 
the heart of youth, is so pre-eminently 
a book of this quality that it will not 
have come by its own until it is taken 
as a vade mecum by the youth of the 
country. It is a gay teacher of pro- 
found wisdom. The truths it teaches 
are of such a nature that 

"Were men once clothed in 
them, we should create 
A race not following, but com- 
manding fate." 



247 



Printed in the City of London 
at the Edinburgh Press 



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